


Palladium and Prosthetics

by cathinda1



Series: Always at Your Side [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Amputation, Arc Reactor, Arc Reactor Angst, Arc Reactor Issues, Eventual Romance, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Genius Tony Stark, Geniuses, Hurt/Comfort, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Mutual Pining, Palladium Poisoning, Parent OFC, Parent Tony Stark, Science, Slow Burn, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, but it does get better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:53:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 39,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24149263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cathinda1/pseuds/cathinda1
Summary: Despite six months of a seemingly perfect life full of work and laughter, all good things have to end. And so the goodness comes to a detrimental end in the case of palladium poisoning. Tony's reckless behaviors are causing Erin to second guess herself as a doctor, but how long before she notices that there's more going on than Tony being bored, and what's with his obsession with legacies.Friendships are tested more than ever when Rhodey notices just how off the rails Tony is, but is it really fair to think that a few acts are going to cause the end of a friendship that spans over two decades.
Relationships: Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov & Original Female Character(s), Clint Barton/Laura Barton, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Natasha Romanov, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Original Female Character(s), James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, Natasha Romanov & OFC, Natasha Romanov & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Peter Parker & Original Female Character(s), Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Tony Stark/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Always at Your Side [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1721323
Comments: 2
Kudos: 35





	1. Chapter 1

Six months had passed since Tony and Erin had announced themselves as Iron Man and Iron Raven, and very little seemed to have changed, at least in regard to Erin. She worked Monday to Friday at Walker Industries, mainly focusing on the POD technology that housed the neuron-transformative-nanotech that allowed feeling in prosthetic limbs. Peter would be picked up from school either by Erin, Happy, or Richie, spending the rest of the day at Walker Industries as Erin finished up, or out doing something with his Ma. The pair had moved back into their country house while Erin worked on the prosthetic technology. Saturdays meant coffees with Clint, Peter usually tagged along unless he was spending the weekend with May, if he was tagging along, Erin and Clint kept the conversation light, if it was just them, they were intent on learning more about each other. Sundays mean the day with Tony, Rhodey, and Pepper.

There were times when things didn’t work like that and Erin ended up going with Tony on a mission to stop a terrorist or another threat. There were times when Nick would come around to the county house on a weekday and Erin would spend the day with him. There were times that Coulson would come over with a bottle of whiskey to complain about Clint being inconsiderate and irritating, but he did so fondly. Another thing that had changed, Erin had become a contractor with S.H.I.E.L.D. wherein she was working as a medical specialist on high priority jobs. She’d been called in once or twice, and never for missions that lasted too long.

Tony, on the other hand, was different. He was reckless, he seemed to have stopped caring, he was donating most of his stuff, he’d also begun acting different. He was currently at the opening to the Stark Expo, Erin hadn’t been able to go considering she was working on finishing up the final parts of the POD design for the housing of the neuron-transformative-nanotech.   
“When’re you coming back to see me?” Tony asked over the phone, Erin let out a sigh, she couldn’t deny that she’d missed being with Tony, but she needed to finish the project before going home.  
“A couple more days, Tones, I’ve gotta finish this lot off so it can be released to the public.” She could practically hear Tony grinning at Erin’s commitment,  
“I’ve gotta get this done, I’ll see you when you’re finished.” Erin agreed before the pair said goodbye.

Heading back into the lab, Erin smirked when she saw the team working flat out, the Expo opening was playing on TV. Erin headed back over to her desk in order to complete a couple of the final modifications for the nanotech while most of the team worked on the POD integration methods.

Erin glanced up at the TV in time to see Tony land on the stage and the Iron Man armor disassemble,  
“ _I’m not saying that the world is enjoying its longest period of uninterrupted peace in years because of me and Doctor Walker._ ” Erin rolled her eyes as she focused her eyes back on her work but kept listening to the TV, _  
_ “ _I’m not saying that from the ashes of captivity, never has a greater phoenix metaphor been personified in human history.”_ Jessica looked over to Erin to see her smiling as she worked from Tony’s words, trying not to laugh slightly.   
“Cocky bastard.” Jessica laughed fondly, she had known Tony for years and loved every aspect of him. _  
_“ _I’m not saying that Uncle Sam can kick back on a lawn chair, sipping on an iced tea because I haven’t come across anyone who’s man enough to go toe-to-toe with me on my best day.”_ The crowd at the Expo cheered while the team of scientists in the lab all rolled their eyes, silently looking over to Erin for a moment before going back to work.

Focusing on her work, Erin tried to ignore the feel of her colleagues watching her, she heard Tony speak once again while people continued to cheer.  
 _“Please, it’s not about me. It’s not about you. It’s not even about us. It’s about legacy. It’s about what we choose to leave behind for future generations._ ” Erin’s eyes widened as she realized that Tony was talking about the young boy who had been helping him plan and design the Expo. She had known that he’d involved Peter in the planning for a reason, but he hadn’t told her why. _  
“And that’s why for the next year and for the first time since 1974, the best and brightest men and women of nations and corporations the world over will pool their resources, share their collective vision, to leave behind a brighter future. It’s not about us. Therefore, what I’m saying, if I’m saying anything, is welcome back to the Stark Expo.”_ The crowd cheered over the TV while Erin’s team all looked to her with expectant looks in their eyes. _  
“And now, making a special guest appearance from the great beyond to tell you what it’s all about, please welcome my father, Howard._”

Erin muted the TV and turned to look at her team,  
“Ok, I can explain.” She said as they all gathered around her, Jessica made her way to stand next to Erin with a smug grin on her face,  
“Look, we all know that our aim is to release this to the public as an effective and affordable prosthesis for all people to have access to. I was kinda thinking about launching it at the Expo, but only if you guys want to.” They all started talking over each other, talking about how it would be best if they did, the amount of public interest it would generate… After several minutes, Erin raised her hand to silence the team,  
“In order to release it at the Expo, we have to complete it.” The team instantly rushed back to work.

The team were working with more determination until Erin sent them all home nearly an hour later, telling them to get a decent night’s sleep and be back tomorrow. As Erin headed for her office to collect Peter, she noticed a woman waiting for her,  
“It’s a bit late for a meeting.” Erin commented as she headed towards her office, barely glancing over to the woman.  
“It’s not a planned meeting.” The woman said, standing to hand a letter to Erin,  
“You are hereby requested to appear before the Senate Armed Service Committee, tomorrow at 9AM in Washington DC.” Erin nodded as she took the subpoena. She watched the woman walk away before meeting Richie and Peter in her office,  
“We’re going to DC, Richie, now.” Richie raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything as he led Erin and Peter out to the car.

The room at the committee was packed full of reporters and news cameras. Erin and Tony sat side by side before the Senate Committee. Erin could stop herself from rolling her eyes at Senator Stern’s attempts to argue with her and Tony, it had barely begun when Tony was distracted and trying to talk to Pepper who looked to be telling him off.  
“Mr. Stark, could we pick up now where we left off?? Mr. Stark.”  
“Yes dear?” Tony asked as he turned to face the Senator, a ripple of laughs echoed across the crowd as Tony and Erin shared a glance.  
“Can I have your attention please?” The Senator asked them both,  
“Absolutely,”  
“Unwaveringly.”  
“Do you or do you not possess specialized weaponry?”  
“We do not.” Tony answered for them both, sharing a glance with Erin as he did so,  
“You do not?”  
“We do not. Well, it depends on how you define the word weapon.” Erin commented, a condescending smile on her lips.   
“The Iron Man and Iron Raven weapons.” It was clear that the Senator was already getting annoyed at the pair in front of him.  
“Our devices do not fit that description.” Tony commented nonchalantly,  
“Well… How would you describe it?”  
“I would describe it by defining it as what it is, Senator.” Erin couldn’t stop herself from grinning, she knew that Jessica would never let her hear the end of this. She glanced up when she heard the Senator asking them to continue,  
“They’re simply high-tech prosthesis.” There were a couple of laughs around the room,   
“That’s actually the most apt description that can be used to define the suits. There are no words within our language that can fully define our creations in a full encompassment of their abilities.” Erin stated simply.  
“It’s a weapon. It’s a weapon, Doctor Walker.” The Senator was practically growling at them by this point.

Tony was becoming more and more annoyed with Senator Stern the more the man spoke,   
“Please, if your priority was actually the well-being of the American citizens-”  
“My priority is to get the Iron Man and Iron Raven weapons turned over to the people of the United States of America.” Erin scoffed, her distrust and dislike of the Senator becoming clear from that single act.  
“Well, you can forget it. I am Iron Man. The suit and I are one. Same thing goes with Erin and Iron Raven.” Tony glanced at Erin before continuing, she was still glowering over the Senators comment about protecting the American people.   
“To turn over the Iron Man suit would be to turn over myself which is tantamount to indentured servitude or prostitution, depending or what state you’re in. You can’t have it.” Erin barked out a laugh at Tony’s comment causing her best friend to grin.  
“Look, I’m no expert…”  
“In prostitution? Of course not. You’re a senator. Come on!” Erin commented to the laughter of the room. Tony glanced over to Pepper before nudging Erin, both of the earning disapproving looks from the woman, ‘no?’ Tony mouthed to which Pepper shook her head, all that seemed to do was give Erin more amusement.

Stern seemed to still be seething at the pair as they returned their attention to the hearing,  
“I’m no expert in weapons.” Stern hissed through clenched teeth before settling slightly,   
“We have somebody here who is an expert on weapons. I’d now like to call Justin Hammer, our current primary weapons contractor.” Erin scoffed in disbelief, shaking her head at the idea of Hammer being considered an expert. Stern shot a glare of disapproval over to the doctor.  
“Let the record reflect that I observed Mr. Hammer entering the chamber, and I am wondering if and when any actual expert will also be in attendance.” Erin laughed quietly at the angry look on Hammer’s face at Tony’s comment. It took Hammer a moment to regain his composure before he could address the pair.  
“Absolutely. I’m no expert. I defer to you, Anthony. You’re the wonder boy.” Erin and Tony shared a glance before both leaning back in their chairs, both looking relaxed,   
“Senator, if I may.” Hammer continued, “I may well not be an expert, but you know who was the expert? Your dad. Howard Stark.” Erin growled at the mention of Howard, Tony took her hand under the table and gave it a settling squeeze.  
“Really a father to us all, and to the military-industrial age. Let’s just be clear, he was no flower child. He was a lion. We all know why we’re here. In the last six months, Anthony Stark and Erin Walker have created swords with untold possibilities. And yet, they insist they’re a shield. They ask us to trust them as we cower behind it.” Hammer turned away from addressing the committee to look at Tony and Erin,  
“I wish I were comforted; I really do. I’d love to leave my door unlocked when I leave the house, but this ain’t Canada.” He turned away from them,   
“You know, we live in a world of grave threats, threats that Mr. Stark and Doctor Walker will not always be able to foresee. Thank you. God bless Iron Man. God bless Iron Raven. God bless America.”

Erin turned to look at Tony, her eyebrow raised and a smug grin on her face,  
“What point was he making?” She asked quietly as the crowd gave a slight applause to Hammer, but most of them looked uncertain,  
“God knows with him.” Tony whispered back as Erin grinned,  
“Some bullshit about us not being able to protect everyone?” Tony chuckled and nodded slightly,  
“Jealous bastard.” She muttered, firing a glare to Hammer,  
“Mr. Stark. Doctor Walker if we could have your attention.” Senator Stern said, Erin and Tony turned to look at him in sync, neither of them moving from where they’d moved closer to each other in order to talk for a moment.

Stern returned his attention to Hammer,  
“That is well said Mr. Hammer.” Erin muttered that it wasn’t as Stern kept talking,   
“The committee would now like to invite Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes to the chamber.” Erin and Tony shared a wide-eyed look,  
“Rhodey? What?” The pair looked over as Rhodey entered the room, both moved to greet him. Rhodey and Tony shook hands while Rhodey hugged Erin briefly,  
“Hey, buddy. I didn’t expect to see you here.” Tony said as the trio stopped for a moment,  
“Look, it’s me, I’m here. Deal with it. Let’s move on.”  
“What’re you…”  
“Drop it.” Rhodey told them as they headed back to their chairs, Erin sitting in between Rhodey and Tony.

Stern waited until the three had settled down before addressing Rhodey,  
“I have before me a complete report on the Iron Man weapon, complied by Colonel Rhodes. And, Colonel, for the record, can you please read page 57, paragraph four?” Rhodey raised an eyebrow at the request,  
“You’re requesting that I read specific selections from my report, Senator?”  
“Yes, sir.” Rhodey shook his head.  
“It was my understanding that I was going to be testifying in a much more comprehensive and detailed manner.”  
“I understand. A lot of things have changed today. So if you could just read…” The Senator sounded fake as Tony and Erin leveled glares over to him.  
“You do understand that reading a single paragraph out of context does not reflect the summery of my final…”  
“Just read it, Colonel. I do. Thank you.”  
“Reading out of context removes the validity of an extract as the surrounding analysis has been removed which denies the appropriate understanding of the piece,” Erin said,  
“That’s enough, Doctor Walker. Colonel, please read it.”

Rhodey and Erin shared a look before Rhodey rolled his eyes,   
“Very well. “As they do not operate within any definable branch of government, Iron Man and Iron Raven present a potential threat to the security of both the nation and to her interests.” I did however, go on to summarize that the benefits of Iron Man and Iron Raven far outweigh three liabilities and that it would be in our interest…”  
“That’s enough Colonel.”  
“…to fold Mr. Stark and Doctor Walker…”  
“That’s enough”  
“…into the existing chain of command, Senator.”  
“I’m not a joiner, but I’ll consider Secretary of Defense, if you ask nice.” Erin and the crowd laughed at Tony’s comment,  
“We’d have to amend the hours for you, though.” Erin added, a mischievous glint in her eye when she heard Rhodey try to cover his laugh, though he did a poor job of it.

Stern tried to get the hearing back on track, doing his best to ignore the comments made by Erin and Tony,  
“I’d like to go on and show, if I may, the imagery that’s connected to your report.”  
“I believe it is somewhat premature to reveal these images to the general public at this time.”  
“With all due respect, Colonel, I understand. And if you could just narrate those for us, we’d be very grateful. Let’s have the images.” Erin watched as Tony took out a Stark device, she couldn’t hide her grin when she realized what he was doing. Tony glanced over with mischief written on his face as Rhodey began explaining the photos the Senator was showing, ignoring what Erin and Tony were up to.  
“Intelligence suggests that the devices seen in these photos are, in fact, attempts at making manned copies of Doctor Walker and Mr. Stark’s suits. This has been corroborated by our allies and local intelligence on the ground indicating that these suits are quite possibly, at this moment, operational.”

Tony and Erin shared a look before Tony interrupted Rhodey,  
“Hold on a second buddy. Let me see something here.” He easily finished taking over the screens, setting the device down as he did so,   
“Boy, I’m good. I commandeered your screens. I need them. Time for a little transparency. Now, let’s see what’s really going on.” He brought up a video of a suit being tested, the Senator began questioning him, but Tony just ignored the man,  
“If you will direct your attention to said screens, I believe that’s North Korea.” The video showed a suit being tested only for it to fall over, Erin and Tony both pulled faces at the accident, both faking surprise. Hammer began trying to switch off the screens as Tony loaded up a second video.  
“Iran.” Erin told them as they watched a suit fly for a few seconds before it crashed, smoking.  
“Yeah, they’re so close…” Erin commented sarcastically,  
“No grave threat here.” Tony muttered before switching the video again,   
“Is that Justin Hammer? How did Hammer get in the game?” Erin exclaimed, “you’re jealous!” She laughed, glancing at Rhodey as he cleared his throat in order to cover his own laughter.  
“Hey! Justin look! You’re on TV.” The video showed a suit completely crashing and a man screaming from within.  
“Wow. Yeah, I’d say most countries, five, ten years away. Hammer Industries, twenty.”  
“Bold of you to assume that Hammer Industries will be caught up in his lifetime.” Erin muttered, but it was picked up by the microphone.  
“I’d like to point out that that test pilot survived.”  
“But how injured was he?” Erin asked, Justin didn’t answer which only caused Erin to smirk with a smug expression.

Erin’s question caused several murmurs around the room, many people questioning whether Hammer cared about the safety of his employees, his lack of answer left even more people muttering.  
“I think we’re done is the point that he’s making. I don’t think there’s any reason…” Stern began only for Tony to cut him off.  
“The point is, you’re welcome, I guess…”  
“For what?”  
“Because we’re your nuclear deterrent.” Erin stated.   
“It’s working. We’re safe. America is secure. You want our property? You can’t have it. But we did you a big favor.” Tony’s voice grew louder as he and Erin stood up and turned to the crowd.  
“We have successfully privatized world peace!” They both wrapped an arm around each other while holing up peace signs with their other hands.

Everyone began talking over each other as Tony continued to bellow over them and raise the public opinion.  
“What more do you want? For now! We tried to play ball with these assclowns.”  
“Fuck you, Mr. Stark. Fuck you, buddy. We’re adjourned. We’re adjourned for today.” Erin pulled a dramatic shocked face at the Senator’s words as she and Tony put on their sunglasses while Rhodey covered his mouth to hide his own laughter. The pair both blew kisses to the Senator before turning to leave, slowly making their way through the masses of reporters.  
“Our bond is with the people. And I will serve this great nation at the pleasure of myself. If there’s one thing I’ve proven it’s that you can count on me to pleasure myself.” Erin lent forward with laughter as Tony wrapped an arm around her and led her from the building.

Happy, Richie, and Peter were waiting with the cars, Erin hadn’t wanted Peter to be in the hearing, and for good reason. It wasn’t the first time that she and Tony had done something together in front of the press, and it certainly wasn’t the worst, but it was definitely on the list. Erin had barely had a moment to hug Peter when multiple texts came through,  
‘From: Copernicus  
Looks like someone knows how to misbehave. Take it you and Stark aren’t exactly the most well-behaved when together. You the bad influence or is he?’  
‘To: Copernicus  
Just because we know how to piss people off… and honestly, we’ve been friends too long to tell.’  
  


‘From: Jess-Jess  
What the fuck were you thinking?!? I hate you.’   
‘To: Jess-Jess  
I know you do, it’ll be fine, don’t worry xx’  
  


‘From: Nick  
Clean up on that is going to be a bitch. Thanks for that, kid. Your dad would be proud of you’  
‘To: Nick  
Why do you think I have you. And I know I make him proud; he knew how to raise Hell too.’  
  


‘From: Coulson  
What the hell did you just do? SHIED can’t get involved with that, you know.’  
  


‘From: May  
Do I want to ask why you thought that was a good idea?’

Erin grinned as she read the texts, replying to most of them before deciding that both Coulson and May could wait for a response, she didn’t need them shouting at her too. She and Tony shared a hug before deciding to head to the Malibu mansion once again, it had been nearly 6 weeks since Erin and Peter had been.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The repercussions of the Senate Hearing leave Tony and Erin at the mercy and anger of their friends, but they can't bring themselves to care all that much.

The mansion was, as always, a welcomed sight for Erin. She couldn’t stop herself from smiling as she, Tony, and Peter headed inside,  
“Pete, why don’t you go play for a bit, I have no doubt that Pepper’ll be ripping us apart as soon as she arrives.” Peter nodded with a grin and headed for his room, leaving Tony and Erin in the living room,  
“I’ll meet you in the ‘shop, I just gotta call Jess.” Tony laughed as Erin cringed,  
“Take it she’s not impressed.”  
“’You’re sending me to an early grave’” Erin imitated Jess’ voice which only caused for her and Tony to laugh some more.

Tony left Erin on the couch, heading downstairs to leave her to make the phone calls that she needed to.  
“What the fuck were you thinking?!” Jessica yelled as soon as she answered the phone, Erin had to move the phone away from her ear in order to stop the shouting being too loud.  
“Ok, I deserve that, but you know that that’s not the worst one I’ve had.”  
“Not the fucking point! We’ve got this project and everything else going on right now, we don’t need you kicking up problems too!”   
“Jess, look, I’ll hide out at Tony’s for a couple of days, this’ll blow over soon. I’ll be back by the end of the week. I’ve got my files with me, so I’ll keep working and send you any updates.”  
“Fine. And you better pray that this blows over.” Jessica snapped before hanging up.

Erin made her way down to the workshop just in time to see Tony lowering his shirt,  
“What’s up?” She asked, noting the fact that JARVIS didn’t greet her,  
“Nothing, how’s Jess?”  
“Pissed off, hating me, and telling me that I’m dead if this doesn’t blow over.” Tony smirked as Erin made her way over to her desk,  
“Is it cool if Pete and I hang out here for a couple days. We’ll head back on Monday so Pete can go to school.” Tony nodded, not speaking as he watched Erin set up her work.

JARVIS spoke up only to alert the pair of Pepper approaching the lab,  
“Is this a joke? What are you thinking?!” Pepper yelled as soon as she entered the room, she made a point of ignoring Erin’s presence in the lab off to the side of the workshop. Her annoyance at Erin’s constant presence at Tony’s side was back in full force.  
“What?” Tony asked, not too sure what Pepper was shouting at him for now, she seemed to just be shouting at him for anything these days, even when Tony was trying his damnedest to get everything sorted and working.  
“What are you thinking?”  
“Hey, I’m thinking I’m busy. And you’re angry about something. Do you have the sniffles? I don’t want to get sick.”

Erin looked over as soon as Tony mentioned the idea that Pepper might be sick. She had done several tests on Tony over the last few months to determine the true extent to which the arc reactor had altered his body, they’d found that viruses like colds or the flu could easily lead to pneumonia or other serious problems. Since then, they were both cautious to keep the air as clean as possible.

Pepper didn’t seem to notice Erin looking up and making her way over to them, choosing to continue berating Tony.  
“Did you just donate our entire modern art collection to the…”  
“Boy Scouts of America.” Tony finished,  
“…Boy Scouts of America?”  
“Yes. It is a worthwhile organization. I didn’t physically check the crates but, basically, yes. And it’s not “our” collection, it’s my collection. No offence.”   
“No, you know what? I think I’m actually entitled to say “our” collection considering the time that I put in, over 10 years, curating that.” Pepper was becoming defensive in her anger, it set Erin on edge as she watched Tony’s movements.  
“It was a tax write-off. I needed that.”  
“You know, there’s only about 8,011 things that I really need to talk to you about.” Tony kept walking through the workshop, doing his best not to stop, knowing that he would start fidgeting noticeably if he stopped, and he had seen Erin sit and begin observing him.  
“Dum-E. Hey, stop spacing out. The Bridgeport’s already machining that part.” He patted the robot’s mechanical arm as he trundled over to a different area of the workshop while Erin and Tony both watched on.

Pepper rolled her eyes as Tony continued to brush her off, she needed to talk to him, but he didn’t care.  
“The Expo is a gigantic waste of time.” She stated bluntly, moving closer to Tony,  
“I need you to wear a surgical mask until you’re feeling better. Is that okay?” Tony stepped away from her slightly, he knew that the air filters were working, but that didn’t stop the fear of becoming even sicker than he already was.  
“That’s rude.” Pepper snapped, but Tony took no note.   
“There’s nothing more important to me than the Expo. It’s my primary point of concern. I don’t know why you’re…”  
“The Expo is your ego gone crazy.” Tony’s eyes tightened at Pepper’s comment. He’d decided to do the Expo as a way of engaging Peter in a project that he could see come to life, he didn’t want to point that out to Pepper just yet, though.  
“The Expo is a chance for people to present products and creations. None of those creations are by Stark Industries, so how is it Tony’s ego?” Erin asked, Pepper didn’t even look over to the woman, ignoring her completely.

Letting himself change the topic, he picked up a painting of Iron Man and Iron Raven flying side by side,   
“Wow. Look at that. Have you seen this?” He showed it to Erin who just grinned, paying less attention to the conversation for a moment.  
“That’s modern art.” She responded.  
“That’s going up.” Tony finished, looking around for somewhere to hang the painting.  
“You’ve got to be kidding.” Pepper groaned as Tony and Erin continued to encourage each other,  
“Stark is in complete disarray. You understand that?” Pepper snapped,  
“No. Our stocks have never been higher.”  
“Yes, from a managerial standpoint.” Pepper argued, glaring daggers at Tony as he headed towards the entrance to the workshop.  
“You are… Well, if’s messy then let’s double back.”  
“Let me give you an example.”  
“Let’s move onto another subject.”

Tony’s eyes landed on a painting to switch with the Iron Man and Iron Raven one.  
“No, no, no, no. You are not taking down the Barnett Newman and hanging that up.” Pepper snapped, Erin scoffed as she looked at the painting,  
“Why not? It’s literally just a black line.” Erin pointed out only to be glared at by Pepper.  
“I’m not taking it down. I’m just replacing it with this.” He climbed onto a desk causing Erin to laugh,  
“He likes to be tall.” She muttered earning a playful glare from Tony as he switched the paintings.  
“Okay, fine. My point is, we have already awarded contracts to the wind farm people.”  
“Yeah. Don’t say “wind farm.” I’m already feeling gassy.” Erin rolled her eyes fondly.  
“And to the plastic plantation tree, which was your idea by the way. Those people are on payroll…”  
“Everything was my idea.” Tony muttered, breaking up Pepper’s rant.  
“…and you won’t make a decision.”  
“I don’t care about the liberal agenda anymore. It’s boring. Boring. I’m giving you a boring alert.”

He jumped off the desk as Erin made her way over,   
“You do it.” Tony said to Pepper, finally stopping and facing her,  
“I do what?”  
“Excellent idea. I just figured this out. You run the company.”  
“Yeah, I’m trying to run the company.”  
“Pepper, I need you to run the company.” The pair continued to argue the matter for a few minutes, talking over each other and not listening.  
“I’m trying to make you CEO. Why won’t you let me?” Pepper and Erin both froze at that comment,   
“Well, secondary CEO really, you make most decisions, only those that could potentially destroy the company or have massive impact on the company come through me. You sort everything else.” Erin raised an eyebrow as Pepper stayed frozen in surprise.  
“Have you been drinking?”   
“Chlorophyll.” Tony said bluntly, he did his best not to glance over to Erin who was looking at him in confusion.   
“I hereby irrevocably appoint you secondary chairman and CEO of Stark Industries effective immediately. Yeah, done deal. Okay?” Tony turned away as U brought over a tray with a bottle of champagne and some glasses,   
“I’ve actually given this a fair amount of thought, believe it or not. Doing a bit of headhunting, so to speak, trying to figure out who a worthy successor would be. And then I realized it’s you.” He poured some champagne, offering one to Erin who shook her head; she wasn’t drinking alcohol at the minute due to trying to finish the POD.  
“I thought there’d be a legal issue, but actually I’m capable of appointing my successor. My successor being you. Congratulations? Take it, just take it.” Pepper took the glass,  
“I don’t know what to think.”  
“Don’t think, drink. There you go.”

Pepper left the pair after a few minutes, leaving to sort out the necessary paperwork and letting Erin and Tony get back to work just as Peter came down into the workshop,  
“What just happened?” Erin asked with a confused smile. Tony watched as Peter clambered onto his usual chair at Tony’s desk, after the boy was settled, Tony turned to look at Erin.  
“I’ve been thinking about this since you and Pete moved in after Afghanistan. If something like that happens to us again and we don’t make it home…” Erin glanced over to Peter who was looking over the information for the next few weeks of presentations at the Expo. She couldn’t deny that she’d regularly thought about the fact that they almost didn’t come home, it killed her to think about how close she came to leaving her little boy.

Tony met Erin’s eyes, stepping closer to her, searching her eyes for understanding.  
“You’ve got Jessica who’ll take care of Walker Industries until Pete turns 21. I’ve not got anyone, I just have Pepper, I trust her and since Obadiah… well, I need somebody I can trust to take over the company if something happens.” Erin smiled sadly at Tony at the mention of Obadiah, the name repeatedly left Tony having flashbacks and PTSD episodes from his old mentor taking the arc reactor. The first time that it had happened, it had left the two geniuses terrified, neither knowing what to do, by the eighth time, they had figured out a method that allowed Tony to be drawn back to reality. Tony had found a similar problem with Erin whenever there was a noise that was too loud, one that she didn’t know was happening, it had left her curled up under her desk in the lab with Jessica the first time, the older doctor calling Tony in a panic.

Tony and Erin stayed silent for a few minutes, keeping their attention on each other while Peter looked over everything on the desk about the Expo.  
“There’s an empty slot!” Peter exclaimed suddenly, breaking Tony and Erin from their reverie.  
“Where, buddy?” Tony asked, heading over to see what the boy was looking at.  
“Look, three consecutive slots are blank, three Thursdays’ time.” Peter said as Tony reached him, Tony raised an eyebrow before sending an email to the team arranging the presentations.

Erin headed back to her lab, trying to comprehend what Tony had told her, she did her best to ignore the voice in the back of her mind that was telling her that something was wrong, she’d grown used to ignoring that voice over the years. Glancing over, she watched as Peter and Tony both laughed and chatted aimlessly while working on the continued plans for the Expo, a smile crossed her lips as she focused on them for a few more minutes before turning back to her own work.

Letting her mind wander to how Tony had been behaving when Pepper was in the room, Erin made a mental note of the insecurities and nervous ticks that Tony had displayed: his wandering, his jolted movements, his topic changes. Looking over her shoulder, Erin couldn’t help but make a note of how different Tony was acting with Peter compared to Pepper. The boy was talking animatedly about the Expo and other projects, Tony was encouraging him and guiding him. She knew that both she and Tony were protective over the young genius, letting him talk to the adamantly for hours over one topic that had no relevance to any previous conversation, helping him exercise his mind.

Tony lifted Peter onto his lap as he continued to explain what each of the presentations that would be taking place over the next two weeks were. Peter listened with full intrigue as Tony told him all about the companies that were showing their new creations. Watching Peter’s eyes fill with wonder at each description, Tony couldn’t stop himself from smiling at the boy, his interest and eagerness to learn about everything around him.   
“What’d you say about coming down to the Expo soon? You can see everything that you’ve helped create.” Peter’s eyes widened at Tony’s offer, the boy leapt off of Tony’s lap and ran to Erin asking if he could go to the Expo.

Eventually, after several uses of puppy-dog eyes, Erin finally relented, saying that Peter could go to the Expo on the day that she and Jessica went to present their project. Peter had been thrilled, running back to Tony to give him the good news. Erin closed her eyes for a moment, hoping that she would be able to deliver on her agreement to Peter sooner rather than later, she wanted him to see what his hard work had led to, but she didn’t want him going and not knowing what was really being presented.

Lifting Peter into his arms, Tony took him upstairs to get some food, knowing that while he and Erin could go on 65-hour benders without food, Peter couldn’t. Tony glanced at Peter, knowing that the nine-year-old was quickly becoming too big to be carried like this, it didn’t matter that he’d only turned nine a few weeks ago. By the time the pair had finished making dinner, Erin had made her way up to join them. For the entire meal, Peter spoke only about the Expo, neither Erin or Tony made a move to stop him, choosing instead to add their own input every now and then.

As the trio were clearing away the plates, the sound of the door opening and closing caused them to freeze,  
“So, how many people have told you both off?” Rhodey called laughingly as he made his way over to the family of three, a grin on his face as he came into the kitchen.  
“Oh, just everyone we know.” Erin replied as she turned to face Rhodey, her own grin covering her lips as she realized that Rhodey wasn’t going to chew them out as well.  
“Well, I would’ve come down sooner, but I was getting chewed out by my CO for ‘encouraging inappropriate behavior’.” The other three just fell about laughing, Tony and Erin clutching the table while Peter kicked his legs.   
“Well, that’s what you get… for laughing at us two… insulting anyone who speaks.” Erin said between breaths as she tried to regain composure,  
“Yeah well, when you get the courtroom to begin questioning whether Hammer’s just a power hungry dick…” Rhodey’s voice faded as he looked at Peter,  
“Oh please, he comes down to the workshop with us, he’s heard worse.” Tony pointed out.

The four turned back to laughing about the hearing now that no one was there who was going to yell at them for being their usual selves.   
“You’d’ve thought that people who know us would know how we can be.” Erin said as she collapsed down onto the couch after putting Peter to bed,  
“Well, apparently they still expect us to be mature.”   
“We can be when it’s necessary. It just wasn’t necessary today.” Tony added. He couldn’t stop himself from feeling wounded that Pepper had been so pissed off with them,  
“Well, if it’s any consolation, Copernicus thought it was hilarious.” Erin told them, Tony and Rhodey both smiled at the idea of Erin’s friend not being pissed off.  
“We ever gonna know his real name?” Rhodey asked, Erin just sent him a look before they started laughing again.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Old friends and new join Erin and Tony, with Erin having to deal with one of her favorite disasters by the name of Clint Barton, better known as Copernicus, and Tony meeting a certain red-headed notary by the name of Natalie Rushman.

Three days passed before Erin got the phone call to say that the construction on the Prosthetics Center of Research was complete and the Prosthetics Department was allowed to move into their new HQ only 14 miles from the mansion. Erin never wanted to forget Peter’s grin from when she told him that they would be staying in Malibu for the foreseeable future, either with Tony, or in their beach-side house not too far away. When Peter had run to tell Tony the amazing news, Tony played dumb, acting as though Peter was the first to inform him, the boy’s excitement left Tony and Erin sharing a silent chuckle.

On the Monday after the hearing, Erin had finally returned to her team, helping them finish moving into their new building. Peter was at his school in Malibu that he would be attending full-time now. Tony was with Happy for the day, boxing. Erin had filled her team in on her promise to Peter, letting them know why she wanted the tech perfected as quickly as possible. Jessica looked at her with a smug grin when Erin’s phone chimed,  
‘From: Copernicus  
Any chance you can fit me in, EMP cooked them’  
‘To: Copernicus  
Today, 4:30pm, the Hub, name of Copernicus.’

Erin rolled her eyes at the thought of Clint breaking the hearing aids that had been working so well not even three weeks ago when he came in for the 6-month check. Jessica just laughed when Erin told her about the appointment with Clint, he was one of the few clients that Erin saw directly, the rest went through the lower ranking staff, not the CEO. Clint was the least known of Erin’s direct clients, most of them were well-known names.

Tony and Happy were boxing when Pepper came into the room,  
“The notary’s here!” Pepper called over as she approached them, her eyes scanned the room for Erin, she let out a breath when she saw that the doctor was absent.  
“I’m on Happy time.” Tony called back just as he elbowed Happy in the face, he muttered a quick apology,  
“What the hell was that?!” Happy snapped, clutching his throbbing nose,  
“It’s called mixed martial arts, it’s been around for three weeks.” Tony responded with a shrug only to have Happy glare at him,  
“It’s called dirty boxing and there’s nothing new about it!” He fired back.  
“Alright, put them up. Come on.” Tony held up his hands, ready for the fight to continue. He raised an eyebrow when he saw Happy’s attention shift, Tony followed his bodyguard’s gaze until he saw a red-headed woman walking into the room, smartly dressed and with pristine make-up.

If Pepper noticed Tony’s distraction, she didn’t comment, choosing to instead focus on getting him to do what she needed.  
“I promise this is the only time I will ask you to sign joining papers on your company.” The notary approached Pepper with a file, telling her which boxes to initial. Happy tapped Tony on the back of the head, trying to grab the other man’s attention,  
“Lesson one. Never take your eye off…” Happy didn’t finish because Tony kicked him in the chest, sending him crashing into the corner of the ring, Pepper and the notary look over, neither paying attention for too long.  
“That’s it. I’m done. What’s your name lady?” Tony called over,  
“Rushman. Natalie Rushman” The woman replied,  
“Front and center. Come into the church.”  
“No. You’re seriously not gonna ask…” Pepper tried to protest only for Tony to cut her off,  
“If it pleases the court, which it does.”   
“It’s no problem.” Natalie assured her, though it did very little to settle Pepper’s discomfort at the idea.  
“I’m sorry. He’s very eccentric.” Pepper said as Natalie entered the ring, doing so in such a way as to try and tempt Tony to look down her shirt. Tony didn’t break eye contact with her, even as he took a drink of the chlorophyll concoction that he was having to drink

Tony glanced from Natalie to Happy and back again,   
“Can you give her a lesson?”  
“No problem.” Tony nodded and stepped out of the ring, heading towards Pepper.  
“Who is she?” Tony asked as they sat down,  
“She is from legal. And she is potentially a very expensive sexual harassment lawsuit if you keep ogling her like that.” Tony tried not to scoff, he knew he hadn’t been ogling her, he hadn’t even been tempted to if he told the truth, but that didn’t stop Pepper from making judgements.  
“I need a new assistant considering you’re becoming a CEO.”  
“Yes, and I’ve got three excellent potential candidates. They’re lined up and ready to meet you.” Tony shook his head, he liked this Natalie, she seemed like she wouldn’t let him get away with reckless bullshit without Erin’s permission.  
“I don’t have time to meet. I need someone now. I feel like it’s her.”  
“No, it’s not.” Tony glanced at Pepper as Happy gave Natalie her lesson, clearly Pepper thought that Tony wanted Natalie for a different reason. He knew that most people that responded to the job offer would either be intimidated by Tony or swoon over him, he needed someone who wasn’t afraid to go toe-to-toe with him.

Turning away from Pepper, Tony loaded up one of the desktop displays,   
“How do I spell your name, Natalie?” He called over to the redhead,  
“R-U-S-H-M-A-N.”  
“ What, are you gonna google her now?” Pepper hissed disapprovingly,  
“I thought I was ogling her.” Tony commented almost childishly as he brought up Natalie’s file on the desk’s screen.   
“Wow. Very, very impressive individual.” Tony muttered, he loaded up some modelling photos to let Pepper keep her assumptions flowing while he paid attention to the other information,  
“You’re so predictable, you know that?” Pepper muttered, Tony couldn’t stop himself from thinking the same of her in that moment.  
“She’s fluent in French, Italian, Russian, Latin. Who speaks Latin?”  
“No one speaks Latin. It’s a dead language. You can read Latin, or you can write Latin, but you can’t speak Latin.” Pepper stated, an edge of annoyance in her tone,  
“Did you model in Tokyo? ‘Cause she modelled in Tokyo.”  
“Well…”  
“I need her. She’s got everything that I need.”

Natalie had clearly heard Tony’s last comment, she turned to look at him, letting her attention leave Happy.  
“Rule number one, never take your eyes off your opponent.” He attempted to take a swing, but Natalie moved faster; she grabs his hand and flips him over, legs over his head. Tony and Pepper both jumped back in surprise, Pepper was instantly worrying about Happy while Tony couldn’t stop himself from wondering where Natalie had learnt to do that.  
“I just slipped.” Happy muttered, pushing himself off the ground.  
“You did?” Tony asked, a grin on his lips, “it looked like a TKO to me.” He shot back as he rang the bell and Natalie stepped out of the ring.

Grabbing the file, Natalie stepped over to Tony who was still watching Happy,  
“I need your impression.”  
“You have a quiet reserve. I don’t know, you have an old soul.” Tony commented causing Natalie to roll her eyes.  
“I meant your fingerprint.” Tony pressed his thumb in the ink and then into the square, signing the paperwork to make Pepper his Secondary CEO.  
“So, how are we doing?” Pepper asked as she approached them.  
“Great. Just wrapping up here. Hey. You’re the boss.”  
“Will that be all, Mr. Stark?” Tony’s phone began ringing at that moment, Tony left Pepper and Natalie, heading out of the room to answer his phone in private.  
“Yes, that will be all, Ms. Rushman. Thank you very much.” Natalie nodded before leaving the room.

Tony smiled softly when he read Erin’s nickname on the screen,  
“Hey Koala.” Tony said as he answered,  
“Hey Schrödinger, I won’t be home until about 6 tonight. Copernicus has had a bit of a hiccup, broken his aids.” Tony just chuckled; he didn’t really know who Erin was referring to when she said Copernicus but had chosen not to question it in the past 6 months.  
“I’ll pick Peter up from school for you.”  
“Thanks.” Erin said, ending the call and letting them both return to whatever they were doing.

By the time 4:30 rolled around, Clint made his way into Erin’s lab, he was becoming disturbingly familiar with the path. He didn’t say anything as he sat down opposite Erin,  
“How bad are they broken?” Erin asked once Clint was looking at her,  
“Can’t hear anything with them except a whistling.” He said, pushing the box over to her. Erin quickly checked them over and determined that they were easily fixed, she couldn’t stop herself from felling impressed by how well Clint regulated his volume and pronunciation even when he couldn’t hear anything. It took her just over an hour to repair the damaged circuitry, once she had finished them, she and Clint turned to their usual conversation,  
“So… the Senate Hearing?” Clint asked, a grin spreading across his features,  
“Ok, look, when Tony and I get together and are on TV, there’s going to be mayhem, especially when we haven’t seen each other for a while. Throw Rhodey into the mix and you’re fucked.” Clint laughed at that,  
“I did notice that Rhodes had to keep covering his mouth to hide his laugher.” Erin nodded with a grin,  
“He tries to pretend that he’s more mature than us… by the way, I won’t be able to do coffee on Saturday. We’re in Monaco for the Grand Prix.” Clint raised an eyebrow,  
“Didn’t take you as the racing type.”  
“Please, I used to go to the races as a kid with my dad. Went to the Nürburgring with him back in ’76, the year Lauda set the record for completing the full circuit in under 7 minutes.” Clint looked at her as if she’d grown a second head,  
“You would’ve been what, three?”  
“Five, it was the last one we went to. Couldn’t afford it after that.” Erin cleared her throat before turning back to sorting her desk,  
“Anyway, Tony’s got a car in the race, invited me to go along with him. Invited Pete too, kid’s not been before, should be fun.”   
“Take it there’ll be press.” Erin nodded, she didn’t look over as she continued to sort the holo-files into their correct places, she could hear Clint’s concern and knew that it was for Peter.  
“Well I’ve been chatting with May and Tony, we all think that I’ll have to go public about the kid soon, he’s started school, we won’t be able to hide forever.”

Clint watched Erin packing a few things away,  
“What did your dad do?” Erin looked over causing Clint to backtrack, “you talk about him a lot, you don’t mention your mom though.”  
“Dad worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. and was quite high ranking until he died. We used to go to the races because my older half-brother liked them, I fell in love with it back when my dad would sit me on his shoulders with an airhorn.” Clint laughed at the thought, “Dad’s work in S.H.I.E.L.D. was always beyond classified… my mom wasn’t around much, she walked out on me and Dad when I was five, never forgave her.” The pair continued talking for a little while longer before finally pacing up and heading home.

Arriving back at the mansion, Erin raised an eyebrow in confusion at the sight of an unfamiliar redhead stood in the living room,  
“Tony?” Erin asked as she ditched her bag on one of the chairs, “who’s this?”  
“Erin, meet Natalie Rushman. She’s my new PA. Natalie, this is my best friend and housemate, Erin Walker, she’s Pete’s mom.” Natalie came over and shook Erin’s hand, Erin noticed Natalie’s eyes change with recognition and amusement that didn’t really fit with the public image that Erin had – while she was considered to care for her patients deeply, she was thought to be immature and cold to those who weren’t in her care.  
“I would’ve introduced myself; I just didn’t realize that I would come home to company. I even called him earlier.” Tony rolled his eyes as Erin spoke, Natalie let out a laugh at Erin’s comment  
“Ok, you wanna head to the ‘shop or what?” Tony asked with a smirk as Erin took his arm, letting him lead her down to the workshop.

The pair were working on the newest models of their suits: a suit that folded down into a case that responded to them so long as they held the gauntlets. It hadn’t taken them that long to figure it all out, it was now the final construction that they were hoping to have completed in time for Monaco,  
“So, Scary Sensible up there is your new assistant?”  
“Why? Don’t you like her?”  
“I don’t think you’ll like her after a week of me and her ganging up on you.” Erin said with a grin causing Tony to roll his eyes.

Tony watched Erin head over to the Iron Raven suit, her toolbox still set up next to it. He couldn’t stop the pain he felt when he heard her humming some song that she liked,   
“J, can you play Erin’s playlist, starting with the song she’s humming? Keep it quiet though.” JARVIS complied, Tony watched Erin relax even more when ‘Snakes and Lovers’ by Spandau Ballet began playing, Tony instantly recognized the song from the concert that Erin had dragged him and Rhodey to back at MIT, it was one band that she’d never stopped liking, even when Rhodey introduced the pair to classic rock. They’d both begrudgingly learnt to tolerate the band.

Tony smiled sadly when he heard her sing along. Running his finger over one of the lines on his chest caused by the palladium, Tony debated telling her the truth, but he decided against it, he wanted her to enjoy Monaco without having to worry about the fact that he was dying. He had less than two months to live and had exhausted every source of a cure, he didn’t know what to do anymore.

In the week that followed, Tony began to regret introducing Natalie and Erin to each other. The pair were quick to gang up on him with Natalie becoming a spare pair of eyes in the lab and ‘shop for when Erin and Tony couldn’t see the problems and Peter was at school. Natalie also wasn’t afraid to physically drag the pair from the workshop if they had been down there too long without a break. She had done so on Wednesday morning at 5:30 when she arrived and found that they hadn’t left the workshop since Peter had gone to bed the night before.

Erin and Natalie quickly became good friends, chatting easily as if they had been friends for years despite only knowing each other for a couple of days. When Jessica had come over the day before they headed to Monaco, Tony couldn’t deny that he was terrified of the fact that they could communicate without speaking. Tony must say that the most terrifying part of that day was when he joined them, he was instantly in on the jokes and the silent conversation, he was also involved in watching as they played fetch with Dum-E for the better part of 2 hours until Erin went to get Peter from school.

Tony hugged Erin to his side that night as they watched a movie with Peter and Natalie,   
“How come you make friends with everyone within five minutes of meeting them?” He whispered, Erin just smiled before snuggling further against Tony’s side, Peter has curled up on Tony’s lap and Natalie was doing her best not to let her head fall onto his shoulder as she dozed off.   
“I have become a pillow…” Tony mumbled as the three cuddled to him fell asleep.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Monaco Grand Prix. What could possibly go wrong? As it turns out... just about everything.

Monaco was as stunning as Erin remembered; she hadn’t been in the better part of ten years. Peter’s eyes had been wide since the plane landed; Erin couldn’t stop her smile as she watched Peter take in all the sights around the city that they visited before heading for the Grand Prix. She led Peter into the VIP lounge, holding his hand tightly in hers in order to stop the eight-year-old wandering off and getting separated. Happy and Richie were behind the group, the two bodyguards carrying the cases that contained the Iron Man and Iron Raven suits in case Tony and Erin needed them. Tony led Pepper into the lounge, it was her first appearance since she was made Secondary CEO,   
“You know, it’s Europe. Whatever happens the next 20 minutes, just go with it.” Pepper looked over to Tony with wide eyes full of confusion,  
“Go with it? Go with what?”

Tony didn’t get to explain any further due to Natalie approaching them, she smirked before addressing Tony,  
“Mr. Stark?” Erin smiled at the sight of her new friend, it was fair to say that she and Natalie had been tag-teaming Tony to make sure he ate and slept at regular intervals.  
“Hey.” Tony called over as Natalie approached them,  
“Hello. How was your flight?” Natalie sent a smile to Erin and Peter before turning to address them,  
“It was excellent. Boy, it’s nice to see you.”  
“We have one photographer from the ACM if you don’t mind. Okay?” Tony and Pepper moved to stand together for a picture.  
“When did this happen?”  
“What? You made me do it.”  
“I made you do what?”  
“You quit. Smile. Look, right there. Stop acting constipated. Don’t flare your nostrils.”  
“You are so predictable.” The pair stepped away and the reporter requested a photo of Erin and Peter. Peter moved closer to Erin, gripping her hand tighter and doing his best to avoid messing with his tie. The reporter took a photo before thanking them and stepping away. Erin smiled when she saw Peter fidgeting with his tie, it was the first even that he was intending where the press would see him.

Natalie led the quartet away from the door, Tony and Erin following closest behind with Peter now scooped into Erin’s arms,  
“You look fantastic.” Tony told Natalie sincerely.  
“Why, thank you very much.”  
“But that’s unprofessional.” Tony muttered, he didn’t want Natalie to feel uncomfortable thanks to Tony’s reputation, he knew that certain comments could leave people who didn’t know him feeling uncomfortable without him meaning to,   
“What’s on the docket?” He said, trying to change the topic back to a professional one.  
“You both have a 9:30 dinner.”  
“Perfect. I’ll be there at 11:00.” Tony said, placing his hand on Erin’s back,  
“And I’ll be there at 9:00.” Erin said, making Natalie smile. She’d grown used to their antics over the past week or so.  
“Absolutely.”  
“Is this us?” Tony motioned to a table in the corner of the room,  
“It can be.” Natalie replied as Pepper joined the group,  
“Great. Make it us.”

Pepper’s attention diverted as she recognized someone stood nearby,  
“Mr. Musk. How are you?” She asked, shaking his hand,  
“Hi, Pepper. Congratulations on the promotion.  
“Thank you very much.” Erin and Tony made their way over, Erin still holding Peter who now had his head resting on her shoulder, looking out to see where they were going.  
“Elon, how’s it going. Those Merlin engines are fantastic.”  
“Thank you. Yeah, I’ve got an idea for an electric jet.”  
“You do?”  
“Yeah.”  
“Then we’ll make it work.” Mr. Musk turned to Erin, shaking her hand,  
“Doctor Walker, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you. Your work on nanotechnology is unmatched.” Erin smiled,  
“Thank you, I’ll let my team know. We worked together on the development of the cancer-detecting nanotech. They’ll be pleased to hear appreciation for their work.”  
“They don’t get out enough.” Peter muttered, Tony led the pair over to the main bar,  
“I didn’t mean to spring this on you.” Tony said to Pepper, he hadn’t told her that she was invited until Thursday evening,  
“Thank you very much.”  
“Green is not your best color.”  
“Oh, please.”

Justin Hammer made his way through the crowd, heading for the quartet,  
“Anthony, Doctor Walker. Is that you?” Erin and Tony shared a look,  
“Our least favorite person on Earth.” Tony muttered to Pepper and Peter, the nine-year-old laughed quietly as Erin set him on the ground, holding his hand tightly.  
“Hey, pal.” Justin said, wrapping an arm around Tony, the genius instantly tried to shrug Hammer off, but he wouldn’t let go.  
“Justin Hammer.” Tony said through gritted teeth.  
“How you doing? You’re not the only rich guy here with a fancy car.” Erin couldn’t help but smirk at the jealousy in Hammer’s voice,   
“You guys know Christine Everhart from Vanity Fair? You guys know each other?”

The reporter in question made her way over to them with a smile,  
“Hi. Yes.” She said, Erin offered her a hand,   
“Yes, we’re on quite familiar terms I like to think,” Erin said, it wasn’t widely known that Erin had a few reporters in a very close circle, ones she trusted to write a more accurate version of events than the rest, since her reporting on Gulmira, Christine had joined that circle. Tony and Pepper confirmed their knowing of Christine before Hammer spoke up again,  
“BTW, big story. The new Secondary CEO of Stark Industries.”  
“I know, I know.” Christine replied excitedly as Hammer offered his congratulations,  
“My editor will kill me if I don’t grab a quote for our Powerful Women issue.”  
“Oh.”  
“Can I? Doctor Walker if I could contact you at some point for a brief interview as well?”  
“Sure.” Pepper replied,  
“You’ve got my secretary’s number, give him a call and we’ll make an appointment.”  
“She’s actually doing a big spread on me for Vanity Fair. I thought I’d throw her a bone, you know. Right?” Erin raised an eyebrow at Hammer’s words, sending a side-glance to Christine who was rolling her eyes,  
“Right. Well, she did quite a spread on Tony last year.”  
“And she wrote a story as well.” Now it was Erin’s turn to roll her eyes, sending an apologetic look to Christine who just brushed it off. The reporter glanced down at Peter while the other three continued to discuss stories, Christine raised an eyebrow at Erin who only shrugged, answering Christine’s silent question of whether Erin was going public about having a son.

Pepper dismissed herself from the group, leaving Tony, Erin, and Peter to deal with Hammer.  
“Hey, buddy. How are you doing?”  
“I’m alright.”   
“Looking gorgeous.” Hammer said as he leeringly looked Erin up and down like she was a piece of meat,  
“Please, this is tough.” Tony said, not giving Erin a chance to answer as he placed a firm hand on her back, keeping Peter between them.  
“And who might this be?” Hammer asked, looking at Peter who moved closer to Erin’s side,  
“None of your business, Hammer.”   
“Can I ask you… Is this the first time…” Christine began as Tony put on his sunglasses and attempted to lead Erin and Peter away, Christine wasn’t deterred,  
“…that you guys have seen each other?” They didn’t respond to begin with,  
“Listen, is it the first time you’ve seen each other since the Senate?” Christine asked again once she had gotten their attention,  
“Since he got his contract revoked.” Tony corrected causing Peter to grin. Erin squeezed the boy’s hand; she didn’t want him to draw any unnecessary attention to himself.   
“Actually, it’s on hold.” Justin defended,  
“That’s not what we heard. What’s the difference between ‘hold’ and ‘canceled’? The truth?” Erin asked knowing that Christine would catch the bait,  
“Yes, what is it?”  
“No. The truth is…” He noticed that she still had out her recorder,   
“Why don’t we put that away?” He said, trying to push the recorder down, but Christine kept it out, much to the glee of Erin and Tony.   
“The truth is, I’m actually hoping to present something at your Expo.” Erin almost scoffed at the idea, Hammer’s ideas were laughable more often than not.  
“Well, if you invent something that works, I’ll make sure I get you a slot.” Peter’s eyebrows furrowed at the suggestion, he didn’t like the man sitting next to Tony, he didn’t want him at the Expo.

Natalie was able to get them away, letting them know that their table was ready,  
“Ma?” Came Peter’s voice, “can we go down to the track?” Tony and Erin shared a smile at the question,  
“We will, just before the race starts, but we won’t stay down for all of it.” Erin told him, she knew the boy would get cold if he was watching outside for two hours, but he’d love to watch from inside, the cars fascinated him, he was always questioning ways to improve the racecar designed by Tony. Richie came over to the pair as Tony left to get cleaned up, Pepper was sat at the table waiting for them all to join her,  
“Doc,” Richie called quietly as he reached them, “race starts in five, they’re offering you guys a place to watch right down at the track.” Erin let Pepper know that they’d be back up in about 15 to 25 minutes. Pepper nodded, smiling, and telling them to enjoy themselves as they headed down to the track.

They had only been down at the track for two minutes when one of the racing team approached her,   
“Stark’s racing.” The man said, Erin’s eyes widened,  
“What?!”   
“We couldn’t stop him, he decided to race.” Erin tensed as the team member left them, her eyes watching the track as the cars sped past, Peter’s mouth was agape, he had ear defenders on so that the car noise didn’t get too loud. Erin watched with tense fear as the race entered its second lap. It didn’t get much further because everything went to hell.

Erin felt like time slowed down when she saw a man walking down the track, his shirt burnt away to reveal a harness with an arc reactor at its center, an whip-looking electrified cable, he swung one at an approaching car, slicing it’s front end off and causing it to flip. Erin spun away from the fence, pulling Peter protectively into her hold, keeping him securely in her arms as a second car was cut. Erin glanced over just in time to see the same thing happen to Tony’s car.

She couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. Erin felt as though a knife was in her heart, she kept her arms tightly around Peter until Richie reached them, the Raven Case in his hand,  
“Go. Save him.” Richie said, holding the case out to let her attach the gauntlets. The Iron Raven formed around her; the jet-black body with red stripes down the back was a familiar comfort for Peter, knowing that his Ma was going to save people.

Erin took off in flight as the man with the cables began attacking Tony, she landed between them, blocking the cable from hitting Tony and allowing him to get away slightly. Erin glanced at the Rolls Royce speeding down the track, she grabbed Tony and lifted off the ground as their audience grew. She lifted them just higher than the Rolls Royce, letting Happy hit the attacker into the fence. Erin dropped them down to the ground, letting Tony head to the car to get his suit from Pepper.

Several minutes passed before Erin and Tony stood side by side in their iconic suits. Their audience was massive now; most of the race spectators were now watching them. The man was still throwing the cables at them, but Tony was quick to grab ahold of one, wrapping it around his arm and stopping the man from using it,  
“Erin, get the other!” Tony yelled, Erin was already working on that, the cable locked around her neck, giving Erin the perfect point to begin taking up the cable. The pair were quick to throw the man upwards using the cables, letting him crash into the ground before Tony tore the arc reactor from the attacker’s chest.

The police detained the man now that he was no longer deemed a threat. Erin and Tony both observed the arc reactor in Tony’s hand, the device was made perfectly to the specification used at Stark Industries. The pair shared a look in the joint HUD before Tony crushed the device in his hand.

As soon as everything had settled enough, the pair decided on their next steps: Tony was heading to the prison to find out how their attacker had made an arc reactor, and why he was attacking them; Erin was heading to the hospital to check on the injured and see if there was anything that she or Walker Industries could do.

The ride to the hospital was tense, Erin felt like she couldn’t breathe for the entire journey. Natalie had gone with her, Peter, and Richie while Pepper and Happy were with Tony.  
“Mind waiting in the car with Pete?” Erin asked her new friend,  
“I’ll keep him safe.” Natalie reassured her, Erin nodded her thanks before exiting the car with Richie. The pair made their way into the hospital and were instantly being swarmed by people from the track and the press.  
“Where are the families of those injured in today’s attack?” Erin asked at the desk, several people stepped forward,  
“Is there somewhere we can talk privately?” Erin asked the receptionist again, the woman led Erin, Richie, and the families down the hall to a vacant office.

Erin took a breath before looking at each of the family members,   
“I want to offer you something in private because this isn’t a publicity stunt, this is me knowing that my actions and the actions of my friend resulted in your loved ones being put in here. If you accept, they will be given the best care and treatment available, that continues through any therapy or physiotherapy that they require, no matter how long it takes. All of this will be paid for by me.” The families looked at her with shocked expressions,  
“Why would you make that offer?” Asked one woman, the wife of one of the racers,  
“Because it was me and my friend that caused the incident today.” Erin said simply, she didn’t know how else to phrase her guilt. The families all agreed to Erin’s offer after several minutes and several reassurances that there was no small print.

At the prison, Tony had been led to the cell where the unknown attacker was being held.  
“Pretty decent tech. Cycles per second were a little low. You could have doubled up your rotations. You focused the repulsor energy through ionized plasma channels. It’s effective. Not very efficient. But it’s a passable knock-off. I don’t get it. A little fine tuning you could have made a solid paycheck. You could have sold it to North Korea, China, Iran, or gone onto the black market. You look like you got friends in low places.” Tony knew he was rambling, but he wanted to loosen the tongue of his attacker,  
“You come from a family of thieves and butchers. And now, like all guilty men, you try to rewrite your own history. And you forget all the lives the Stark family has destroyed.” Tony didn’t flinch at the man’s accusation, he’d heard it all before,  
“Speaking of thieves, where did you get this design?” His voice was still calm, sounding almost nonchalant as he wandered around the room,  
“My father. Anton Vanko.” Tony thought for a moment but came up blank,  
“Well, I never heard of him.”  
“My father is the reason you’re alive.” Vanko stated simply, Tony resisted the urge to roll his eyes,  
“The reason I’m alive is ‘cause you had a shot, you took it, you missed.”  
“Did I? If you can make God bleed, the people will cease to believe in him. And there will be blood in the water. And the sharks will come. The truth, all I have to do is sit here and watch as the world will consume you.”   
“Where will you be watching the world consume me from? That’s right. A prison cell. I’ll send you a bar of soap.” Tony moved to leave the cell only to stop when he heard Vanko speak again  
“Hey, Tony. Before you go, palladium in the chest, painful way to die.” Tony didn’t turn around, he didn’t let the man know that the words scared him, didn’t want him to realize that he hit Tony’s weak spot. Tony left the cell without another word.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Confessions are often the hardest thing, though that all depends on how severe they are. In this case, confessions are the absolute worst, but maybe it'll lead to several unintentional breakthroughs.

Pepper was pissed at him, that was the easiest way to say it. She didn’t say anything to Tony as they reached the airfield where the jet was waiting to take them home. Once they were in the air, Peter was asleep pretty much instantly, but Tony and Erin were tense. Tony motioned for Erin to follow him to the small galley at the back of the plane. His eyes focused on the ground when Erin stopped to face him.  
“What’s wrong?” She asked softly, “what did the guy say?”  
“It’s not what he said…” Tony took a breath, here goes nothing, “it’s what I haven’t.” Erin’s eyebrows scrunched up in confusion as she tried to figure out what Tony was saying. She didn’t need to consider it for long; Tony unbuttoned the three buttons on his tee-shirt, pulling it down just enough to reveal the top of the arc reactor and several of the palladium tracks in his chest.

Erin reached out and brushed her fingers over the black lines,  
“What’s… I don’t…”  
“I’m dying, Erin.” Tony told her weakly, tears stinging his eyes as he did so, “I’m dying and there is nothing I can do to stop it.” Erin looked up to meet Tony’s eyes, tears glistening as they slid down her cheeks.  
“I didn’t know how to tell you before…” Tony whispered as he buttoned his tee-shirt back up, he took Erin’s hands in his, trying to stop both of them from shaking.  
“We’ll figure this out.” Erin said, trying to sound certain but her voice wavered,  
“I’ve tried all other chemicals, none of them can serve as a replacement.” Tony told her as they both sat down on the galley floor.   
“It’s the palladium, isn’t it?”   
“Should’ve known you’d figure it out.”   
“I took note of so many possible health risks that I missed the most obvious one!” Erin exclaimed weakly before letting out a sob causing Tony to do the same,  
“It’s not your fault,” he whispered, “it’s not anyone’s fault.”

Tony wrapped an arm around Erin, pulling her into a hug before pressing a kiss to the top of her head. Erin placed her flesh hand over the reactor.  
“How… how long do you…” She couldn’t finish the question,  
“I’ve got between 4 and 6 weeks.” Tony confession caused more silent tears to cascade down Erin’s cheeks.  
“That’s why you made Pepper a secondary CEO.”  
“And donated loads of my stuff.” Tony confessed,   
“Have you told anyone else?”  
“No. I didn’t know how to tell _you_ , I wasn’t telling anyone before you. Not even Rhodey.” Erin’s breath caught in her throat as Tony placed his hand over hers.  
“I promised you that I’d always be at your side and now I can’t be.” He murmured through his own tears.   
“So, we make the most of the time left. We also try to find a cure.” Tony glanced over to Erin,  
“A cure?”   
“I’ll help you find one, until then I can program a POD to counteract the symptoms and replace the damaged cells.” Tony nodded before resting his cheek on the top of Erin’s head.

The pair stayed like that for the best part of three hours before getting up to make Pepper an ‘apology omelet’, Erin couldn’t stop herself from smiling at the idea as Tony set to work. It didn’t take them long to make the omelet, granted it was a little bit burnt, but it wasn’t _too_ bad. Erin laughed slightly as Tony covered the plate and grabbed some cutlery, he squeezed Erin’s hand briefly as they headed back into the seating area of the jet.

The sound of Stern on the TV greeted them as they made it to the entrance way,  
“ _It’s just unbelievable. It proves that the genie is out of the bottle and this man and woman have no idea what they’re doing. They think of the Iron Man and Iron Raven weapons as toys. I was at a hearing where Mr. Stark and Doctor Walker, in fact, were adamant that these suits can’t exist anywhere else, don’t exist anywhere else, never will exist anywhere else, at least for five to ten years, and here we are in Monaco realizing that these suits exist now.”_ Erin and Tony both rolled their eyes as they entered the main area.   
“Mute.” Tony said as he walked to sit opposite Pepper,   
“He should be giving us a medal. That’s the truth.” He finished as Erin sat down next to Peter, collecting the sleeping boy into her arms.  
“What is that?” Pepper asked, motioning to the plastic dome, Tony lifted it,  
“This is your in-flight meal.” He said as he set the cutlery down next to her.  
“Did you just make that?” Pepper asked, trying to hide her disgust at the sight of the omelet.  
“Yeah. Where do you think we’ve been for three hours?”  
“Tony, what are you not telling me?” Tony tensed slightly, not answering for a moment,  
“I don’t want to go home. At all. Let’s cancel my birthday party and… We’re in Europe. Let’s go to Venice, Cipriani. Remember?”   
“Oh, yes.”  
“It’s a great place to be healthy.”  
“I don’t think this is the right time. We’re in kind of a mess.” Erin glared at Pepper for not picking up on the signs.

Erin was kicking herself for not noticing the suicidal tendencies behind Tony’s actions ‘ _you’re not a psychologist_ ’ she thought, but that didn’t stop her anger at herself. She’d noticed his nervous tendencies and PTSD symptoms had been higher, but she’d missed the most important thing.   
“Yeah, but maybe that’s why it’s the best time. ‘Cause then we can…”  
“Well, I think as the Secondary CEO I need to show up. They’ll be expecting you, too.”  
“As SCEO, you are entitled to a leave.”  
“A leave?” Pepper asked, her voice increasing in volume as she grew more annoyed,  
“A company retreat.” Tony offered,  
“A retreat? During a time like this?” Pepper asked incredulously, as if she was dealing with a child,  
“Just a ride. Well, I’m just saying, to recharge our batteries and figure it all out.”   
“Not everybody runs on batteries Tony.” Anger rippled just under the surface as Erin heard the slight, she tried to ignore Pepper for the rest of the journey home, but it was hard to do.

Arriving back at the mansion, Erin and Tony instantly headed down to the lab, Peter sat in the kitchen doing some equations that Tony had created for him to occupy him for a short amount of time, the pair had asked not to be disturbed as they left Pepper and Natalie answering phone calls and trying to calm the situation.

Only an hour passed before Rhodey arrived,  
“Where are they?” Rhodey demanded as he entered, stopping briefly to give Peter a hug,   
“They’ve asked not to be disturbed,” Natalie said, she hadn’t really met Rhodey yet so didn’t know how far the rules went with him,  
“They’re downstairs.” Pepper stated, letting Rhodey head down into the workshop while she and Natalie kept dealing with the phone calls.

Tony was sitting in one of his cars while JARVIS ran a scan for all records of Vanko. Meanwhile, Erin was in her lab, modifying one of the prototype PODs to detect and replace the poisoned cells in Tony’s body.   
“Query complete sir. Anton Vanko was a Soviet physicist who defected to the United States in 1963. However, he was accused of espionage and was deported in 1967. His son, Ivan, who is also a physicist, was convicted of selling Soviet-era weapons grade plutonium to Pakistan and served 15 years in Kopeisk prison. No further records exist.” JARVIS told them; Erin glanced over to see a couple of the newspaper articles.

Neither of them bothered to look over to the door when they heard it open, knowing full-well that it was Rhodey.  
“Tony, Erin, you gotta get upstairs and get on top of this situation right now.” He walked towards them when he noticed that neither of them seemed to be paying attention to him,  
“Listen. I’ve been on the phone with the National Guard all day, trying to talk them out of rolling tanks up the PCH, knocking down your front door and taking these. They’re gonna take your suits, guys, okay? They’re sick of the games. You said nobody else would possess this technology for 20 years. Well, guess what? Somebody else had it yesterday. It’s not theoretical anymore.” Rhodey rolled his eyes when neither of them moved,  
“Are you listening to me?” He gripped Tony’s shoulder and the younger man turned, he looked like death,   
“Are you okay?” Rhodey asked softly, Tony just nodded as Erin made her way over to them,  
“Let’s go.” Tony muttered weakly, he climbed out of the car but didn’t even make it passed the doorframe before he fell.

Rhodey sprinted over to his best friend, catching him before Tony could hit the ground.  
“Hey, man. Hey, hey! You alright?” Tony barely had the energy to nod as Erin moved to his other side,  
“Yeah, I should get to my desk.” Rhodey and Erin took one of Tony’s arms each, supporting him until they sat him in his desk chair,  
“See that cigar box?” He asked Rhodey, “it’s palladium.” Tony removed the arc reactor and turned it over only to reveal the smoking underside,  
“Is that supposed to be smoking?”  
“If you must know, it’s neutron damage. It’s from the reactor wall.” Tony opened the reactor base to reveal the burnt-out palladium core; it had bubbled and discolored, the sight caused Erin to tense, Tony took her hand gently. She knew what was happening but seeing the actual damage to the palladium made her feel like she was about to fall.  
“You had this in your body?” Rhodey asked as he took the core and placed a new one in the reactor.  
“It’s not like I’ve got much of a choice.” Tony muttered as he watched Rhodey.   
“And how about the high-tech crossword puzzle on your neck?” Rhodey asked again, stepping away from the table,  
“Road rash.” Tony placed the reactor back in his chest, hitting it a couple of times in order for it to lock into place. As soon as it had, Tony lent his head back thanks to the pain of the electromagnet starting up again.

Taking a drink of the chlorophyll smoothie that he was having to drink, Tony glanced over to Rhodey,  
“What are you looking at?” Tony mumbled,  
“I’m looking at you. You wanna do this whole lone gunslinger act and it’s unnecessary. You don’t have to do this alone.” Tony glanced between his two best friends, watching as Erin nodded, Tony opened his mouth only to fall silent. He couldn’t tell Rhodey, not yet.  
“You know, I wish I could believe that. I really do. But you’ve gotta trust me. Contrary to popular belief, I know exactly what I’m doing. Besides, I’ve got Erin.” Erin smiled sadly as she met Tony’s eyes. Rhodey watched them knowingly, he knew that there was more going on, but neither of them would tell him, they did this when they didn’t want to hurt him, but he still hated it.

Rhodey left them for the evening when Erin’s phone rang,  
“We did it!” Jessica screamed through the phone causing Erin to drop it in surprise,  
“Did what?”  
“It works!” Erin’s eyes widened and she jolted forward in excitement, Tony glanced over to her with a raised eyebrow,   
“How?”   
“Your work, the updates you did, like, an hour ago, they showed us the transition module in a different way, allowed us to bind them to the POD for systematic release when necessary.” Erin let out a shocked laugh,  
“The test show stabilization?”  
“Yep! Not one misfire. Allowed for stabilization and directed focus of the particles.” Erin tried to contain her excitement as Tony made his way over to her.   
“That’s… that’s fantastic! You guys go celebrate, or go sleep for 24, or do whatever it is you do when you finish a project that defies the impossible, I’ll be there tomorrow.” Jessica acknowledged her boss’ words before hanging up.

Erin’s grin spread when she noticed Tony standing next to her,   
“They did it. We’ve finished the tech. It works.” Tony grinned, laughing, and pulled Erin into his arms,  
“Let’s cancel my birthday party tonight, we’ll go out and celebrate this. Just me, you, and Peter.” Erin tightened her arms around Tony,  
“I would love that…” she whispered, “but, Tones, people will suspect that something’s wrong if you cancel your party.” Erin pulled away slightly, her hands on Tony’s upper arms, Erin’s voice was barely above a breath when she spoke,  
“I know you hate it, but we’ll go out tomorrow night. I’ll take Peter and we’ll go check in with Jess.” Tony nodded before letting Erin move away, he silently watched her walk up the stairs before kicking himself,  
“That was _the moment_ wasn’t it, J?”  
“I would think so, Sir.” Tony headbutted the wall, he heard Dum-E make his way over to him, chirping in concern at Tony’s action. Tony patted to robot on his mechanical arm before heading for his room.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The consequences of a single photograph taken in Monaco may have a significantly larger impact than Erin originally intended.

Erin headed towards Peter’s room, her mind thinking back to Tony,  
“Doctor, I’m sorry to interrupt your thoughts, but it appears that an article has been released about Peter,” Erin’s eyes widened as she headed back to the living room just as Tony was coming up the stairs,  
“What’s wrong?” He asked, but Erin didn’t respond,  
“JARVIS, IRIS, can you load all reports on Peter, no matter how vague.” The two AI’s began loading several articles and news reports, all questioning who the child with Erin at the Grand Prix was.

Watching the reports, the pair saw multiple pictures of them both with Peter, some were even of Erin and Peter down at the track that had been posted on social media. The question of who Peter was had gone viral almost as quickly as information on the attack,  
“There seems to be a common assumption that you’ve started a program similar to the Make A Wish Foundation. Many people are also guessing that Peter’s your child.” Erin nodded but the tension didn’t leave her shoulders.   
“IRIS, arrange a press conference would you. Make sure my circle is there and then send a message to Richie.” IRIS confirmed everything before Erin headed to see Peter.

Making her way into Peter’s room, Erin took a breath,  
“Hey Petey-pie.”  
“Hey Ma. It’s a microcircuit. It’s for my robot.” Peter told her as Erin glanced at the project on his desk, parts were scattered all around him and the desk.  
“Well, that’s cool.” She ran her fingers through Peter’s hair, “Pete, remember in Monaco there was a man who took a picture of us?” The boy nodded, “well, people are asking who you are, so we’re going to have to go and talk to the press.” Peter nodded, but he clearly wasn’t sure about the idea.  
“It means you’ve gotta dress really nice though, like Tony does.” She watched as Peter pulled a small suit out of his closet. Erin smiled as Tony stepped into the room, offering to help the boy get changed.

Natalie met Erin in her room, having found Erin her own suit to wear,  
“I hear that people are curious about who he is.”  
“Yeah. I know I couldn’t keep him a secret forever, but I don’t want his life to change. He’s not really had all that much to do with the press.” Natalie help Erin with her makeup once the woman was changed just as Richie arrived.

The drive to the press conference was unnerving for Erin, Tony was going with her, but he’d agreed to stay in the side room and let her do all the talking so that people didn’t get the wrong impression. As soon as Richie opened the door, Peter began freaking out; there were too many people. Erin knelt down next to him, whispering a couple of reassurances in his ear before lifting Peter into her arms and standing up. It helped that the boy was still quite small for his age. Tony and Natalie followed a couple of steps behind, Jessica joining them as soon as the group were inside.

Taking her place at the podium, Erin set Peter on his feet but didn’t let go of his hand, Erin waited as the reporters fell silent,  
“I know I called this as a last minute event, but it’s a necessary evil after the events in Monaco, both the events of the attack and the speculation around this one,” she motioned to Peter who was silently watching the reporters while trying to hide behind his Ma.  
“Starting with the matter of the boy next to me. Speculation is true in that he is my son, I adopted him five years ago when he was only four years old, six weeks after his parents; my cousin and her husband, died. As such, until he is old enough to make the decision for himself and have his own media presence, he will have limited appearance in the media.” Erin stated, she looked at Peter who was watching the crowd. Kneeling down beside him, Erin whispered for him to go to Tony who was stood waiting for him with open arms. Peter ran to the man as soon as he saw him.

Erin turned back to the reporters, all waiting for her to continue,  
“There has also been speculation about whether Iron Man and Iron Raven can still protect the people of America. I can say, with absolute confidence, that myself and Tony Stark have never once wavered in our want to protect the American people. While the events in Monaco have raised questions over just how safe we all are, I want to reassure you all that we will continue to defend America and her interests.” The reporters all began talking over each other in order to ask questions, Erin noticed her circle of reporters scattered throughout them. Nodding to Christine, the woman spoke up,  
“Don’t you worry that by being the Iron Raven, you are putting your son at risk?” Erin nodded,  
“That’s something I have regularly considered. While being the Iron Raven is a risk, my life was at risk anyway due to my work, that can be seen from the events in Afghanistan last year. As such, I believe that I am safer when I am using the armor than I am in normal life.”

She turned to another reporter, this one was a new face at the conference,  
“How can you say with complete confidence that Tony Stark also has the nation’s best interests at heart considering his continuing reckless behavior?” Erin smiled as she looked over to the side room, Tony nodded to her,  
“Well, why don’t we just invite him up?” Tony walked to stand beside Erin,  
“Despite my behavior outside of my actions as Iron Man, I haven’t stopped defending this country or her people since I announced myself as Iron Man.” He stated smoothly, his eyes glancing over to Erin,  
“Myself and Doctor Walker have been defending this country from our posts as Iron Man and Iron Raven, doing our best to destroy any and all remaining Stark weapons to prevent their use against innocent people. We have been working together to try and create equipment that will not only protect the people of today but help to build a secure world for future generations.”

Erin nodded to another reporter, Freeda, she believed the woman’s name was,  
“Will your son take up the role of CEO of Walker Industries when you retire?”  
“While that has not yet been decided by him personally. At present, my son is the only heir to Walker Industries and my fortune, as such, it will be up to him as to whether he takes over as CEO or simply the owner. However, I would like to think that we are still a long way from that.” Erin stated, a similar question was then directed to Tony,  
“Similar to Doctor Walker, while he is currently being considered as being named my heir by myself, Doctor Walker, Pepper Potts, and several lawyers, he is currently not being written as my heir but there is regular consideration about him taking over ownership of the company between myself and Erin.” Both glanced over to where Jessica was rolling her eyes at them.

One of Erin’s inner circle, Ben, spoke up,  
“In response to your Senate hearing a few weeks ago, there has been a lot of speculation about whether Iron Man and Iron Raven will still be able to work as protection for the country. What can we expect to see next from Iron Man and Iron Raven?”  
“Simply put, we will continue to protect the country. Despite what Senator Stern is saying in regard to our hearing, we believe that we are still capable of offering protection to the citizens of the United States. As such, you can expect to see us still acting for the benefit of the United States.” Erin’s voice was smooth as she gave her answer, Tony smirked slightly.

After several more questions, the pair brought the conference to a close, heading into the side room in order to take Peter home. Jessica looked over to Erin,  
“The rest of the team have crashed in the lounge, none of them made it out the building.”  
“Weren’t my words to you lot ‘don’t exhaust yourselves’ as I left for Monaco?” Jessica just laughed, slinging an arm over Erin’s shoulders,  
“Wanna come see now?” Erin glanced over to Peter and Tony before shaking her head,  
“No. I wanna get Pete home, let him settle down. I’ll come back tonight.”  
“What? Not going to the party?”   
“I’ve got work to do.” Erin grinned.

Tony, Erin, Peter, and Natalie headed out to the car where Richie was waiting for them. They barely slowed down to speak to any reporters, Erin just wanted to get Peter home, let him change and play for a bit before bringing him to the Hub to show him the POD and nanotech designs. The quartet were practically silent the entire way back to Tony’s house.

Peter ran inside, deciding that he didn’t want to be in a suit any longer. Erin and Tony both came to the same decision, changing before heading down to the workshop to get in a few hours of work before the party.

Erin grabbed the box from her bedside cabinet, her present to Tony. She headed down to the workshop with the box, placing it silently on Tony’s desk just before he arrived. Doing her best not to look over, Erin heard Tony chuckle when he opened the box to reveal an MIT class ring to replace the one that he lost in Afghanistan, underneath it was a polaroid picture of the pair and Rhodey from the ‘90s by the looks of it. It looked like they were decorating Erin’s first house. Tony turned the picture over to reveal Rhodey’s handwriting on the back: ‘Wanna live like common people!’  
“I take it you nicked the picture from Rhodey?” Erin stayed silent which only caused Tony to laugh,  
“Thanks, Erin.” He said sincerely, the ring already on his finger as he made his way over to Erin. He loved the gifts she gave because, while she was a billionaire, her gifts always had some sort of meaning. It was one of the habits that she had never lost from growing up with next to nothing.

The pair stayed working for a couple of hours, Tony found himself repeatedly distracted by watching Erin work, she was already working on the integration of Project Nerve, trying to determine the percentages and ratios of aspects that Tony didn’t understand. JARVIS interrupted the silence where the only noise was the music playing on the sound system, quieter than either of them usually had it, the AI alerted them that Tony needed to start preparing for his guests to arrive. Erin smiled over as she closed her station down, locking her files.   
“Have fun!” She said before heading upstairs. Tony watched silently, he found himself doing that a lot lately… pushing the thought from his mind, Tony headed upstairs to change and clean up for his party despite not wanting it.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Parties and catastrophes. Some new revelations come to light, and perhaps some betrayals too.

Tony stood looking in the mirror, his shirt unbuttoned as he looked at the worsening rash on his chest. His mind kept wandering back to Erin’s lab, the excitement in her eyes, his hands just above her hips, hers on his arms, the hug… Tony shook his head, snapping himself out of it just as Natalie entered the room. Buttoning his shirt up, Tony headed to the chair in the middle of the room,  
“Do you know which watch you’d like to wear tonight, Mr. Stark?”  
“I’ll give them a look.” Natalie placed the box down on the dressing table,   
“I should cancel the party.” Tony said after a moment.  
“Probably.”   
“Yeah. Cause it’s…”  
“Ill-timed.”  
“Right, sends the wrong message.”  
“Inappropriate.” Natalie made up a martini before handing it to Tony, watching closely as he took a drink,  
“Is that dirty enough for you?” She asked, once again attempting to flirt with him, but she knew it was pointless.  
“Gold face, brown hand. The Jaeger. I’ll give that a look. Bring them over.” Natalie carefully brought him over the cherry wood box of watches.  
“I’ll take that. Why don’t you…” She sat down as Tony’s voice faded off, smiling softly before applying some makeup to the bruise next to his eye.  
“I gotta say it. It’s hard to get a read on you. Where are you from?”  
“Legal. How was Erin, I saw that she left in a hurry.” Tony noticed her deflection, but he didn’t want to deal with that tonight.  
“She’s just been told that Project Nerve worked, she’s excited to see the finished piece.”

Natalie smiled as she finished doing the makeup. Her eyes looking over Tony as he spoke, noticing the longing in his eyes as he spoke of Erin.  
“Can I ask you a question, hypothetically? Bit odd. If this were your last birthday party you were ever gonna have, how would you celebrate it?”  
“I’d do whatever I wanted to do with whoever I wanted to do it with.” Natalie responded after a moment, silently hoping that Tony would go and find the woman and boy who had just left his house. Tony looked down for a moment as Natalie left the room,  
“And what if I can’t do that?” He muttered to nobody.

Tony made a decision in that moment: he would do what was expected of him. He would host a party, get drunk, wake up tomorrow with a hangover and Erin mocking him with a fond smile. His mind drifted again causing him to shake his head several times to clear his mind and return his focus to the party.

It didn’t take Tony long to get drunk. He had many reasons to drink, the main one being regret, but that didn’t matter right now. Tony stood up by the DJ dancing in the Iron Man suit without the helmet.

He didn’t register much of what was happening, choosing instead to drink and dance. His mind went to Peter, laughing and chatting happily about whatever project they were working on together. He thought about the times that the boy would drag him from the workshop to watch whatever movie he was obsessed with that week.

He thought of Erin, watching them with a fondness that left Tony’s heart skipping a beat (a dangerous thing for a man with a heart condition), the way her fingers would brush through Peter’s hair when he was explaining something or showing Erin something. He remembered the goodness of her heart that most people saw as a front that she put on for the media, not taking the time to consider just how truly vulnerable Erin was, her heart was good, it meant that she always put others first. Especially him.

He let himself think of Rhodey; his best friend that became his brother when he stuck by him, no matter what Tony was up to, how he had protected both Tony and Erin back at MIT when they would pick fights with people at least double their size. His platypus who didn’t give up searching for him when everyone else thought he was dead.

Those were the things Tony was regretting. He would be leaving his family: the boy he loved as a son, his… Erin, his Rhodey-bear, Pepper, Happy… Tony took another gulp from the bottle in his hand, deciding to shut his family from his mind for the rest of the night. Pepper approached him and before Tony realized it, she was switching the bottle of alcohol in his hand for the microphone. She kept telling him to send everyone home, but Erin was right, people would get suspicious if he did that. Tony began talking, but he was hardly registering the words himself,  
“…if anybody doesn’t like it, the door’s over there.” He said, accidentally shooting the door as he pointed to it. Next thing he knew, he had shot something that someone had thrown in the air.

This carried on for a few moments until Rhodey’s voice bellowed above the crowd.  
“I’m only going to say this once.” Everyone moved to reveal Rhodey in a full suit. Tony didn’t have time to feel betrayed because Rhodey kept talking,  
“You don’t deserve to wear one of these. Shut it down!” Tony felt like he had been kicked in the stomach, all air was gone from his lungs at Rhodey’s words. Did his best friend really think so little of him?

Tony decided that he wasn’t going to make it easy for Rhodey,  
“Goldstein!” He called over to the DJ,  
“Yes, Mr. Stark?”  
“Gimme a beat to beat my buddy’s ass to.” He laughed slightly as Another One Bite the Dust began to play. Rhodey acted while Tony was distracted, grabbing ahold of him from behind  
“I told you to shut it down.” Tony took off backwards, smashing them through some glass,  
“Now, put that back where you found it before someone gets hurt.” Tony growled only for Rhodey to begin throwing various things at him, Tony threw a set of weights at Rhodey, hitting him square on the chest and forcing him backwards.  
“Sorry pal, Iron man already has the best partner anyone could ask for. We don’t need a third wheel.”  
“Third wheel this.” Rhodey spat as he hit Tony with a pipe. Tony flew up through the ceiling,  
“Had enough?” Came Rhodey’s voice behind him.

Upstairs, Pepper found Natalie and instantly began closing in on her,  
“Natalie!”  
“Miss Potts.”  
“Don’t you “Miss Potts” me!” Pepper snapped, “I’m on to you. You know what? Ever since you came here…” Pepper didn’t get to finish as Tony and Rhodey came crashing through the ceiling. At that moment, Happy ran in to get Pepper out, ordering Natalie to get out too, the redhead took off.

Tony and Rhodey didn’t stop to acknowledge the trio, continuing their fight,  
“You want it? Take it!” Tony yelled, beating Rhodey before turning a growl at the crowd, causing them to run off just as Rhodey gets back to his feet.  
“Put your hand down.” Rhodey ordered, but Tony didn’t obey, choosing instead to begin charging the repulsor.   
“You think you got what it takes to wear that suit?”  
“We don’t have to do this, Tony.” Tony resisted the urge to scoff, Rhodey had started this! He thought petulantly,  
“You wanna be the War Machine, take your shot.” Tony dared him, taunting Rhodey,  
“Put it down!” Rhodey ordered again, Tony still didn’t lower his hand,  
“You gonna take a shot?”  
“Put it down!”  
“No!”  
“Drop it Tony!”  
“Take it!” Tony yelled as they both fired the repulsors, the blasts met causing an explosion, taking out the front of Tony’s house and throwing both Rhodey and Tony to the ground. Tony looked around just in time to see Rhodey take off in the suit.

Erin left Peter’s room at their beach-front house in Malibu, she was far enough away that the only chance that she would hear anything coming from Tony’s house was if it blew up. It hadn’t taken long for Peter to settle into bed given that it was nearly 23:00. Erin headed down to the lab, looking over the finalized piece of Project Nerve, she could barely keep the thrilled grin off of her face as she looked over the results of each test, each one more promising than the last. She could barely believe that it had worked.

Loading up a holographic projection of the final piece, Erin set IRIS on the job of making a project display for the presentation at the Expo next week. As soon as IRIS was creating the display, Erin turned her attention to her new project: Tony. She pulled up footage of all the times that IRIS had noticed him displaying the signs of suicide.   
“How’d I miss this, IRIS?” Erin asked softly, her heart aching at the fact that she hadn’t noticed Tony’s behaviors changing,  
“You were at the Philadelphia HQ for final set-up, Erin, not Malibu.” That didn’t make things any better in Erin’s mind.

Erin spent the next couple of hours looking through the data of Tony’s continuing mental instability, she was trying to determine a way to help him which didn’t require him going to a therapist,  
“Hey, IRIS? How long would it take me to train in psychiatry?”  
“You tried it before and set fire to the textbooks after one month and three days. Quite an accomplishment for a woman who cannot go near fire without having a panic attack.” Erin slumped as she remembered her hatred for the subject that would help her to help Tony,   
“What if I just listen?”   
“He is more stable with you and Peter.” Erin nodded silently.

It came crashing down with the realization that she might not have time to help Tony. He’d told her that he had 4 to 6 weeks left to live. IRIS had narrowed it down to 3 to 4½, Erin felt like everything was coming crashing down, it felt like her work meant nothing because she couldn’t save one of the people who meant the most to her. The POD would take another 36 hours to prepare and synthesize before she could connect it to the arc reactor to counteract the effects of the palladium, but even then, it might be too late.

Erin didn’t get much more time to think thanks to the sound of an explosion rocking the house.   
“IRIS? What the hell was that?”  
“It would appear that there was a massive energy burst at Frankenstein’s house, I do not know if he is injured.” Panic flooded Erin,  
“Can you call Pepper?”

The phone only rang once before Pepper answered,  
“Pep? What’s happened?”  
“ _Erin, it’s Rhodey. He stole a suit._ ” Erin felt like she’d been slapped,  
“Can you come watch Pete while I find Tony.”   
“ _I’m already on my way. Go._ ” Erin nodded as she hung up, she set IRIS to guard Peter before suiting up and flying off just as Pepper and Happy arrived at the house.

Erin flew for barely a minute before Tony’s house was in sight, it was partially destroyed with smoke and dust still billowing around it. Erin landed and began searching for Tony,  
“Life signs?”   
“One. It appears to be Natalie Rushman.” Erin flew to find her new friend, she found the woman outside, almost as if she were waiting for Erin.  
“Natalie?”  
“Firefly!” Natalie yelled. The word caused Erin to stop, “firefly.” Natalie repeated, much calmer this time. Erin’s eyes widened behind the faceplate, betrayal and hurt flooding her.   
“Give me your name.” Natalie looked hesitant thanks to Erin’s growl, but spoke after a moment,  
“Natasha Romanoff.” She stated,  
“Who told you firefly?”  
“Cl- Nick Fury.” Erin’s expression tightened at Natalie… Natasha’s near slip.  
“Where’s Tony?”  
“I don’t know.”

Erin landed and lifted the faceplate, looking directly at Natasha with eyes full of hurt,  
“Why? Why are S.H.I.E.L.D. here? Were you just tasked to get close to us, earn our trust, and then destroy it in one move?”  
“Erin, I-”  
“No. no, give Nick a message from me, tell him to get S.H.I.E.L.D. out of my life, if they come near my son, Tony, or myself again, I will destroy the life of whatever agent it is.” Erin spat.   
“Message received.” Came the voice of Nick Fury, “but you’ve got one last job to do. You’re heading to New Mexico to assist Agent Coulson.” Erin scoffed bitterly,  
“No. I’m staying with Tony. That’s final.” Nick wasn’t deterred,   
“Your son will be placed with Miss Potts,”  
“I’ll be there for a day. If you don’t like me leaving after that, then you can go fuck yourself. One more day, and then I want you, and the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D. gone from my life.” Erin said as she flew towards the airfield.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony meets Nick Fury and founds out the truth about a certain 'friend' of his, though he isn't too sure that 'friend' is the correct term. Peter is left with more questions than answers when he wakes up to find that his Ma has gone away without any explanation and he isn't allowed to see Tony.

Morning arose to find Tony lying in a giant donut sign, still wearing the suit. He didn’t know that Erin was on a plane to New Mexico, not that she was pleased about it. His helmet was beside him as he held a box of donuts, eating them as he tried to let his anger and hurt dissipate enough to head to see Erin and explain everything to her.   
“Sir! I’m gonna have to ask you to exit the doughnut.” Tony lowered his sunglasses down his nose until he saw Nick Fury stood watching him.

It took several minutes before Tony decided to fly down, though he didn’t take off the armor. Nick watched him with a raised eyebrow before leading Tony into the donut shop,  
“I told you I don’t wanna join your super-secret boy band.” Tony muttered as he took a drink of coffee, he couldn’t hide the fact that he didn’t like Erin’s godfather.  
“No, no, no. See, I remember, you do everything yourself and you like to drag my goddaughter in on it. How’s that working out for you?” Tony looked away at the mention of Erin, he’d noticed her absence like a punch to the chest. He thought that she would be the first out looking for him.  
“It’s… It’s… It’s…” Tony took a breath before putting his shields back up, “I’m sorry. I don’t wanna get off on the wrong foot. Do I look at the patch or the eye? Honestly, I’m a bit hung over. I’m not sure if you’re real of if I’m having…” Fury lent forward, clearly not amused at Tony’s comment.  
“I am very real. I’m the realest person you’re ever gonna meet.”  
“Just my luck.” Tony muttered before glancing around, “where’s the staff here?” Nick noticed the tracks on Tony’s neck, he knew about the palladium, but didn’t realize just how serious it was.  
“That’s not looking so good.”  
“I’ve been worse.”

Fury didn’t get to respond thanks to him noticing a woman walking over to them.  
“We’ve secured the perimeter, but I don’t think we should hold it for too much longer.” Tony recognized that voice, looking over, Tony lowered his eyes when he saw Natalie, he doubted that that was her real name,  
“You’re fired.” He muttered, a feeling of betrayal settling in his gut, he’d trusted Natalie, considered her a friend even, but now he just felt hurt by her.  
“That’s not up to you.” Natalie said as she took a seat next to Fury,  
“Tony, I want you to meet Agent Romanoff.” Nick said as he wrapped an arm around the woman, looking almost fatherly as he did so.  
“I suggest that you explain yourself to Erin. She’ll be very hurt.”  
“She was.” Natalie replied solemnly, Tony noted the real emotion in her voice, she hadn’t wanted to hurt them, or at least she hadn’t wanted to hurt Erin and Peter.  
“I’m a SHIELD shadow.” Agent Romanoff continued after a moment of silence, “once we knew you were ill, I was tasked to you by Director Fury.”

After remaining silent for a few more moments, Nick finally spoke up to address the reason that he’d sent Agent Romanoff to shadow Tony.  
“You’ve been very busy. You made your girl your CEO, you’re giving away all your stuff. You let your friend fly away with your suit. Now, if I didn’t know better…”  
“You don’t know better. She’s not my ‘girl’. And I didn’t give it to him. He took it.” Tony interrupted, he wasn’t in the mood to deal with Nick today,  
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. He took it?” Nick exclaimed, “you’re Iron Man and he just took it? The little brother walked in there, kicked your ass and took your suit?” Tony rolled his eyes as Nick turned to Agent Romanoff, “is that possible?”  
“Well, according to Mr. Stark’s database security guidelines, there are redundancies to prevent unauthorized usage.”

Tony remained silent, he didn’t need them knowing that he had built a suit for Rhodey so that he could take over as Iron Man when Tony died, he just knew that he didn’t want to leave Erin doing it all alone.  
“What do you want from me?” Tony asked quietly after several minutes, his eyes darting between Fury and Agent Romanoff.  
“What do we want from you? What do you want from me?” Nick responded as Romanoff left the table.  
“You have become a problem, a problem I have to deal with. Contrary to your belief, you are not the center of my universe. I have bigger problems than you in the southwest region to deal with. Hit him.” Tony raised an eyebrow at Nick’s comment.

Apparently, his confusion was too little too late because Romanoff grabbed him by the chin and injected something into his neck,  
“Oh, God, are gonna steal my kidney and sell it?” Nick ignored Tony as he watched the rash go down on the billionaire’s neck.  
“Could you please not do anything awful for five seconds?” Tony said, still talking to Romanoff,   
“What did she just do to me?” He asked, worry in his voice as he turned to Nick,  
“What did we just do _for_ you?” Nick corrected before explaining,   
“That’s lithium dioxide. It’s gonna take the edge off. We’re trying to get you back to work.”  
“Give me a couple of boxes of that, I’ll work with Erin. I’ll be right as rain.” Romanoff shook her head from where she’d sat next to Tony,  
“It’s not a cure, it just abates the symptoms.”   
“Doesn’t look like it’s gonna be an easy fix.” Tony rolled his eyes, glaring at Nick for him pointing out the obvious.  
“Trust me, I know. I’m good at this stuff. I’ve been looking for a suitable replacement for palladium. I’ve tried every combination, every permutation of every known element.” Nick shook his head causing Tony to raise an eyebrow,   
“Well, I’m here to tell you, you haven’t tried them all.”

Glancing around, Tony turned back to Nick with narrowed eyes,  
“Where’s Erin? She’s got a habit of finding me when I don’t wanna be found. Where’s Pete?” He said, Nick lent back in his seat, trying to decide what to tell Tony,  
“Erin’s been working as an emergency contact for S.H.I.E.L.D. since she was 24, doing emergency medical if we need her… expertise. She’s currently in New Mexico, she’ll be back tonight after disowning any connection to S.H.I.E.L.D. and getting her contract revoked.” Tony couldn’t stop himself from smirking at that,  
“So, your goddaughter has decided that she hates you and everything you stand for.”  
“And all because you only have two weeks to live. As for Peter, the boy is in the care of Virginia Potts.” Nick finished before ordering Tony to follow him.

Back at the beach-front house, Peter was just waking up. When he’d gone to bed, his family had seemed perfect; his Ma was happy, Tony was helping her out with something, the world knew he existed but they didn’t know his name, Auntie Pep was still Auntie Pep, Natalie was helping his Ma keep up-to-date with everything, Uncle Rhodey was annoyed with Ma and Tony, and Happy and Richie were Happy and Richie. Little did Peter know that, by waking up, his world would be completely different than when he went to sleep,  
“IRIS? Where’s Ma?”  
“Erin is currently away, Peter, would you like me to call Pepper or Happy, they are currently in the living room.” Peter furrowed his brows before heading to the living room.

As soon as Pepper saw him, she was off the couch and by Peter’s side,   
“Pete? You ok, honey? Want some breakfast?” Peter was even more confused,  
“Where’s Ma?”  
“She got called away in an emergency, she didn’t want to wake you.” Peter knew that was a lie. Erin would always wake him before she went away, it stopped Peter panicking quite so much. Peter decided not to comment, not wanting to make Pepper uncomfortable when she clearly didn’t want to speak.

Heading back to his room, Peter loaded up one of the hologram projectors before activating one of the trackers on his Ma’s cars. When all of them appeared to be at one of their houses, Peter furrowed his brows, trying to determine a better way to find his Ma,  
“IRIS, can you tell me where Ma is?”  
“I don’t have the authority to answer that question, Peter.” IRIS answered causing Peter look up to one of the sensors with watery eyes,  
“Why don’t we go to the beach?” Happy asked him softly. Peter didn’t really want to, but he definitely didn’t want to stay home without his Ma and Tony.

The beach was as warm as always as Peter jumped over the waves, he didn’t notice Jessica and Richie make their way to the beach, both stopping next to Happy and Pepper.   
“How’s he taking it?” Richie asked softly, looking over to Peter playing in the waves,  
“We haven’t told him. He asked about Erin, but she’ll be back tonight, so it shouldn’t be too suspicious.”  
“Really? She went out and didn’t tell him in advance, Tony’s not been over, neither’s Rhodey. You expect him not to notice something’s up?” Jessica asked exasperatedly,  
“Jessie, come play!” Peter called over, Jessica toed off her shoes and socks before running over to tackle Peter in the tide.

The pair were splashing each other happily, laughing hysterically as they tried to cover each other in the water,  
“Jess? Why’s Tony not come round?”  
“He’s got some work to do, but he’ll be over as soon as he can be.” Peter nodded, accepting the lie for now. Jessica swallowed roughly at the thought that Peter might not get to see Tony for much longer.  
“He loves you though, don’t forget that Pete.” She added, watching the boy look over and tilt his head to one side.   
“Let’s go back inside, get changed.” Peter took Jessica’s outstretched hand without question, practically dragging the woman back up to the beach-side house.

Tony sat with Nick outside the remains of his house, looking out over the coast, Tony was silently glad that Erin’s house was just out of sight, on the beach rather than the cliff. Nick pulled Tony out of his thoughts,  
“That thing in your chest is based on unfinished technology.” Tony rolled his eyes at Nick’s comment,  
“No, it was finished. It has never been particularly effective until I miniaturized it and put it in my…” He motioned to the light in his chest,  
“No. Howard said the arc reactor was the steppingstone to something greater.” Tony tried not to scoff at the mention of his father, “he was about to kick off an energy race that was gonna dwarf the arms race. He was on to something big, something so big that it was gonna make the nuclear reactor look like a triple-A battery.”  
“Just him, or Anton Vanko in on this too?” Tony sneered,  
“Anton Vanko is the other side of that coin.” Fury began, despite his tone, he wasn’t patronizing, clearly too used to dealing with irritated geniuses,   
“Anton saw it as a way to get rich. When your father found out, he had him deported. When the Russians found out he couldn’t deliver they shipped his ass off to Siberia and he spent the next 20 years in a vodka-fueled rage. Not quite the environment you want to raise a kid in, the son you had the misfortune of crossing paths with in Monaco.” Tony smirked briefly at the final statement.

Tony turned his mind back to what Nick had told him at the donut shop,  
“You told me I hadn’t tried everything. What do you mean I haven’t tried everything? What haven’t I tried?”  
“He said that you were the only person with the means and knowledge to finish what he started.” Tony did scoff at that, there was no chance of him covering it up,  
“He said that?” There was no way in hell that Howard had said that about him,  
“Are you that guy? Are you? Cause if you are, then you can solve the riddle of your heart.”  
“I don’t know where you get your information, but he wasn’t my biggest fan.” Tony spat, he hated his father these days,  
“What do you remember about your dad?”  
“He was cold, he was calculating. He never told me he loved me. He never even told me he liked me,” Tony confessed, “so it’s a little tough for me to digest when you’re telling me he said the whole future was riding on me and he’s passing it down. I don’t get that.” Tony looked away from Nick, looking out over the water,   
“You’re talking about a guy whose happiest day was when he shipped me off to boarding school. Freddie was a better parent to me, and he only knew me two years,”  
“Freddie knew how to keep a genius child engaged. And that spiel, that’s not true.”  
“Well, then, clearly you knew my dad better than I did.” Tony muttered angrily.

He didn’t need anyone making excuses for Howard’s shitty parenting, he’d had too many people do that over the years.  
“As a matter of fact, I did. He was one of the founding members of S.H.I.E.L.D. So was Freddie” Tony’s eyes widened,   
“Does Erin know that?”  
“Doubt it, Freddie kept her away from S.H.I.E.L.D. for most of her youth.”  
“I got a two o’clock.” Nick said as he stood up,  
“Wait, wait, wait, wait. What’s this?” Tony asked as several large boxes were placed down,  
“Okay, you’re good, right?”  
“No, I’m not good.”  
“You got this? Right? Right?”  
“Got what? I don’t even know what I’m supposed to get.”  
“Natasha will remain a floater at Stark with her cover intact. Erin will be back in three hours; her plane is on its way back.” An agent approached them, “this is Agent Darryl, he’ll be keeping an eye on you. And Tony, remember, I got my eye on you.” Tony watched exasperatedly as Nick left.

Natasha made her way over, her expression was softer than it had been at the donut shop,  
“We’ve disabled all communications. No contact with the outside world. Good luck.”  
“What about Peter and Erin?” Tony asked, schooling all emotion out of his voice,  
“Peter will remain in the care of Pepper Potts, Erin will be driven to the Hub so that she can prepare for her Expo slot.” Tony nodded, but ignored Natasha until the woman left.

Turning to Agent Darryl, Tony decided to see just how far he could push his luck,  
“Please. First thing, I need a little bodywork. I’ll put in a little time at the lab. If we could send one of your goon squad down to The Coffee Bean, Cross Creek, for a Starbucks run, or something like that, that’d be nice.”  
“I’m not here for that. I’ve been authorized by Director Fury to use any means necessary to keep you on premises. If you attempt to leave or play any games, I will taze you and watch Jeopardy while you drool into the carpet. Okay?”  
“I think I got it, yeah.”  
“Enjoy your evening’s entertainment.” Tony looked at the boxes in confusion, not even sure where to begin his work.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erin arrives in New Mexico and S.H.I.E.L.D. learns that their contracted doctor isn't as sweet as people think, especially when she has the guts to yell at Clint and Coulson.
> 
> This chapter takes place at the same time as the last one but I split it into two parts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in one day, aren't you lucky? Updates may begin to slow down because I go back to work later this week, however most chapters are finished so it shouldn't be too bad.

Arriving at the crash site in New Mexico, Erin had barely let go of her anger at Nick and Natasha, she knew that she still had a look of rage flooding her face. She wanted to be with Tony, he had about two weeks left to live, but her godfather had sent her on a pointless task in the middle of the desert.  
“You look absolutely thrilled to be here.” A familiar voice laughed behind her, his voice sounded more strained than normal.  
“Fuck off, Copernicus.” Clint was taken aback by the brashness of Erin’s words. He’d heard her swear many times, enough to make even a sailor blush, but it rarely held any malice. He wasn’t too sure how serious to take her anger thanks to her using her nickname for him.  
“What’s up?” He asked, concern filling his voice. He’d grown to care for Erin in the year that he’d known her, she was one of his closest (only) friends.  
“Nothing! Absolutely nothing. I just fucking love S.H.I.E.L.D. agents coming into my life and destroying any sense of fucked-up normality that I have left for the next few weeks before everything I have fucking disappears!” Her voice had been steadily getting louder until she was full-on shouting.  
“I take it that Agent Romanoff introduced herself to you.” Came Coulson’s voice, he had the audacity to sound amused which only added to Erin’s anger,  
“You! You backstabbing, lying, guilt-tripping, manipulative, selfish, cold, calculating, prick of a bastard!” Clint took a step back at Erin’s words, his eyes wide and betraying his surprise as he glanced over to Coulson.  
“Erin…” Coulson began softly, cautious of aggravating the woman any further,  
“You tell me, asshole, what were the last things my father said to you?”  
“If she never sees this world then I’ll die a happy man.”  
“You fucking cunt. I can see why you can only get a job as some fucked up spy.” Erin spat before storming to the makeshift building that one of the guards was nervously directing her to.

Most of the agents had heard what she’d said to the two most dangerous people at the site, it left most of the terrified of the doctor. Erin was guided towards a room where a blond man was being held, apparently, he’d tried to steal a hammer, why they needed Erin’s help, she’d never know. Coulson muttered something about her being able to get the truth from the man without him realizing it, but Erin wasn’t paying too much attention to her ‘friend’s’ boss.

Erin entered the room where the blond was strapped to a chair, she scanned him for injuries and saw a gash on his arm and a deep cut on his forehead. She took a breath, letting her anger dissipate enough for her to be able to do her job without her emotions impacting it at all. She knew better than to let her emotions get in the way of her work, it would leave innocent people compromised. She schooled a smile onto her face before facing the job at hand.

Walking towards him with a medical bag, Erin glanced him over and sat down beside him, he looked at her with caution,  
“Mind if I patch up that arm and your head?” The man didn’t speak so Erin set to work, she wasn’t in the mood to deal with pleasantries. She may ignore her anger, but that didn’t mean that she was in the mindset to deal with other emotions.  
“You’re different to them.” The man said after a moment, Erin sat back slightly, glancing up to see the man watching her with a level of curiosity that could put Peter’s to shame.  
“In what way?” Erin asked softly, her voice changing to the tone she used when dealing with her most vulnerable clients.  
“You have a sadness, you lost someone. You’re losing someone still.” Tension set into Erin’s shoulders, she eyed the man curiously while cleaning his arm with expert precision.  
“Ah, you wanna get the backstory. Nope, gonna need yours first.” The man looked at her in confusion which only caused Erin’s smile to grow more genuine,  
“What brought you to our neck of the woods?”  
“I was exiled, my father died thanks to me. My mother will never see me, and my brother is to be king.” Erin glanced up as she brushed the gash with the antiseptic, Coulson had told her that he was a spy or something, but Erin knew that there was true hurt in his eyes, he wasn’t lying. She knew the pain of blaming yourself for the death of a family member, she knew that this man wasn’t putting on the hurt.  
“Damn. That’s harsh.” She muttered, more to herself than to her patient.

Erin turned her attention back to her work as she put a patch over the gash, turning to focus on the head wound.  
“Your turn.” The man muttered through a hiss as the antiseptic seeped into the headwound.  
“A fire.” Erin muttered with a shrug, “it’s as simple and as complicated as that.” The man raised an eyebrow, causing Erin to continue,  
“I lived with my dad because my mom left him in the middle of the night while I was in my bed. Took my older half-siblings left me. Anyway, skip a few years, my two older half-brothers have gotten married, oldest one’s just had a kid. They all go to my dad’s house while I’m at college…”  
“College?” Erin did her best not to raise her eyebrow in concern at the man not knowing what a college was.  
“Yeah, it’s the continuation of schooling, education. I went to MIT at the time, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I’d already been to Harvard Medical School; I later went to Stanford University.” The man nodded, though he didn’t look any less concerned.  
“Anyway, they were all at my dad’s house, he was the only relative that I actually cared about so I didn’t want to go home. Early in the morning, the, uh, the heating came on, heated up a bomb placed next to the boiler, wire attached to the boiler so it would detonate when it became hot enough. Took out my dad, mother, stepfather, four older half-brothers, two older step-brothers, three half-sisters, step-sister, younger half-brother, two sisters-in-law, and one three-week-old nephew.” The man’s eyes widened,  
“I am truly sorry,” the sincerity in his voice made Erin tilt her head, it had been a long time since she’d heard someone give her complete sincerity without an ulterior motive (excluding her family and close friends).  
“Yeah… I hadn’t seen my mom since I was five, never met half of ‘em, but it still hurt. Blamed myself, seems stupid, but I was the only one who wasn’t there, and it was out of pettiness that I wasn’t.”

The man sat for a moment as Erin’s hand stilled,  
“Is that why you have the metal?” Erin creased her eyebrow until she saw the man looking at her bionic arm, she hadn’t realized that it still had its metallic appearance.  
“No. That came much later, I wasn’t home remember,” the man nodded, waiting silently for Erin to continue, Erin took a breath as she tried to determine how to word the next part of her story.  
“I was in a warzone with my best friend. A bomb shredded my arm, did a fair bit of damage to my back, not my spine, thankfully, doesn’t stop my back hurting, especially when the weather’s cold.” The man looked at her in surprise,  
“Yeah, hurt my friend too. He’s still paying for it in fairness.” He looked at her in confusion, but Erin wasn’t in the mood to explain Tony, he was too close to her heart to talk to a stranger about his problems.  
“Well, Philoctetes, you’re all patched up.” She said as she collected her things,  
“Who is…”  
“It’s a Greek myth, Philoctetes was stranded on Lemnos, you’re stranded here. It’s fitting.” She responded as she left the room. A smile crossed her lips for the first time since she got on that plane last night.

She was heading back towards the airstrip; her plane would be arriving in a few hours. Clint caught her up before she could get too far,  
“Erin!”  
“No. Clint, I’m done. Done with S.H.I.E.L.D.” Coulson had joined them,  
“Y’know what Natasha Romanoff said when she told me who she was? Firefly. When I asked her who told her, she hesitated before saying Nick. There are three people who know about Firefly that would go against it and tell someone. Nick and you two. So, who told her?” Neither of them answered,  
“Both of you. Good to know.” Erin turned away before looking back at them both. Tears stung her eyes as she shook her head.  
“We’re done.” She said, “from the moment I get on that plane, the only contact I will have with you is for you to tell me that your hearing aids need fixing.” Erin stated, doing her best not to let her voice waver as she watched them.

Walking over to the edge of the field, Erin just sat cross-legged on the ground, not listening to any of the agents who approached her. Clint came over to her after nearly half an hour.  
“I’m sorry.” He whispered, “I never meant to hurt you, Erin.” Erin just scoffed,  
“Palto,” Erin tried to stop herself smiling at the nickname of the mistakenly pronounced philosopher, “you asked me almost a year ago if I had a family.”  
“You said ‘it’s complicated’” Clint nodded as he sat down,  
“Well, I had a job, just over a decade ago, I needed to go and assassinate one of the Black Widows who survived their training. She’d made a name for herself as a master assassin. I’d just found out that my wife was pregnant. Made me think that, if I couldn’t protect this 16-year-old, how could I be a father. My wife had found the file and… well there was an argument there. Anyway, I made a different decision; brought her in, trained her. Natasha became a sister to me, I would go to any lengths to see her safe.” Erin raised an eyebrow, not too sure what Clint was trying to tell her.  
“If I thought Tasha would hurt you, I wouldn’t have told her. I told her to tell you Firefly if you were in danger and she needed to reveal her identity. I need to protect you because I consider you a dear friend, but I need to make sure that she’s safe because she’s my little sister, granted, she’s an assassin and spy, but so am I.” Erin looked over to Clint with wide eyes,  
“She’s been calling me most nights, either talking so highly of this woman who manages to make Stark a better person, or ranting about how you’re not around and he’s been a dick.” Erin smiled,  
“She told me all about this kid who’s a genius and adored by you and Tony, about a woman named Jessica who can get you out of the lab no matter what. A man who goes by Rhodey who isn’t afraid to yell at you and Tony. Same way I would call her once you were asleep in the hospital, keeping her informed about this woman who had a baffling mind and a brilliant heart.” Clint took a breath, “you’ve been a friend to me for nearly two years, Erin, and I know that I don’t wanna lose you.”

The pair remained in silence until Erin’s plane arrived, Clint walked with her, tensing when she hugged him before she got on the plane, not before she sent a glare to Phil. Clint and Phil stood next to each other as the plane took off,  
“See that you’re her friend again.” Clint didn’t speak for a moment, choosing to keep his expression blank,  
“Turns out that if you tell her the truth from the start, she’s fine.” With that, Clint walked away, heading to his bunk to call Natasha.

The phone only rang once before Natasha picked up,  
“How much does she hate us?”  
“Well she hugged me as she got on the plane, but I’m not ruling out the possibility that I’ve just been poisoned.” Natasha was silent at the other end,  
“Stark hates me, too. It’s never felt this bad before.”  
“No, but we’ve not been emotionally close to the target before. You knew that I already had an established friendship with Erin and Peter, you knew that before you even got there.” Clint’s breath caught when he heard Natasha sob, she’d never grown attached to anyone in such a short space of time before, but Erin had a way of making people like her, Peter had the same effect.  
“Hey, we’ll put it right.” He reassured her, Natasha mumbled something too quiet for him to hear,  
“I’ve got to go, I’m still undercover at Stark Industries.” The call ended leaving Clint with tears in his eyes.

Dialing another number, Clint wasn’t surprised that it rang for nearly a minute before his wife answered,  
“What’s wrong?” Laura asked him,  
“Erin’s angry with me and Nat.” He heard Laura sigh apologetically,  
“She’ll be fine soon.”  
“It’s not that simple this time. I messed up.” He could practically hear Laura rolling her eyes,  
“What’d you do?”  
“Told Nat something that was given to me in confidence, Erin think I betrayed her.”  
“Then prove to her you didn’t.” The couple fell silent as the sound of children screeching echoed down the line,  
“I’ve gotta go.” Clint smiled softly at the sound of the children. He muttered a goodbye before hanging up. He contemplated Laura’s words for a moment, he knew that she was right, he needed to find some way to prove to Erin that he was sorry. Telling her about Natasha and Laura had been a start, but it was just that, a start, he’d find a way to make it up to her.

Natasha looked down at her lap, her crying subsiding a few minutes after she ended the call with Clint, she didn’t know what to do nor how to make things right, but she wanted to. Tony and Erin deserved to have people that they could trust, but she had just ruined it.

Erin sat on her plane looking out the window, her mind trying to process what Clint had told her about Natasha being his sister. She knew that she would go to the same lengths to protect Rhodey, even further for Tony. She didn’t know if she could trust Clint, but she forgave him for telling Natasha about Firefly, after all, Clint didn’t know what it meant any more than Coulson knew. Only two people alive knew what Firefly was: Erin and Nick. Erin intended to keep it that way.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony makes his apologies, Natasha admits some thing, and Erin prepares for her presentation. On the other side of things, Rhodey works with Hammer Tech to add more weaponry to the suit he stole from Tony.

Rhodey felt terrible for what he’d done at the party. He stood with the suit on the table in front of him at the Air Base as he carefully extracted the arc reactor core,  
“Think this is the power source?” Major Allen asked Rhodey excitedly, Rhodey decided that he would protect Tony for another moment, choosing not to tell the Major what the arc reactor was,  
“Major, this is not a scientific exercise. Let’s just focus on arming it, all right?”  
“Yes, sir.”

At that moment, the door opened to reveal Justin Hammer excitedly entering the hanger.  
“Oh, yes! Oh, yes, yes, yes. Is it my birthday? You got it. What did you do? What did you do? Is this what I think it is?” Rhodey silently schooled his features in an attempt to hide his distaste for the ‘weapons expert’ that had just entered the room.  
“Yes, it is.” Rhodey said as Hammer looked over the gray suit, “Hammer, I want to know what you’re gonna do for us.” Hammer looked up,  
“What am I going to do for you? Well, the first thing I’m gonna do for you is I’m gonna upgrade your software. And then, second, I think I should…”  
“That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about firepower.”

Hammer smiled as some of his staff brought in three cases of weapons,  
“Well, you’re talking to the right guy.” He pulled out the first weapon,  
“Claridge Hi-Tec, semi-automatic, 9mm pistol. Too downtown? I agree. M24 shotgun, pump action. Five-round magazine. You know what? You’re not a hunter. What am I talking about? I’m getting rid of it.” Several more weapons passed in a similar motion, all being placed on the table while Rhodey and the Major kept their expressions schooled,  
“This is the FN-2000 from Belgium. They do make something better than waffles. It’s beautiful, But I can tell this isn’t disco enough for you, so I’m gonna put it right here. You’re looking at a Milkor 40mm grenade launcher. Tear gas, smoke. Hippie control.” He noticed that both of the airmen in front of him kept their expressions blank.  
“You’re tough. Let me tell you something. Size does matter. Don’t let anyone tell you different. This is an M134 7.62 Minigun. Six individual barrels. The torso taker, powder maker. Our boys in uniform call in Uncle Gazpacho or Puff the Magic Dragon.” He placed the gun on the table with the others when Rhodey’s faced remained blank.   
“Okay. These are the Cubans, baby. This is the Cohibas, the Montecristos. This is a kinetic-kill, side-winder vehicle with a secondary cyclotrimethlyenetrinitamine DX burst. It’s capable of busting the bunker under the bunker you just busted. If it were any smarter, it would write a book. A book that would make Ulysses look like it was written in crayon. It would read it to you. This is my Eiffel Tower. This is my Rachmaninoff’s Third. My Pieta. It’s completely elegant. It’s bafflingly beautiful. And it’s capable of reducing the population of any standing structure to zero. I call it the Ex-Wife. That’s the best I got. Are we gonna do this? Give me something here. You’re like a sphinx. I can’t read you.” Rhodey remained silent for a moment longer,  
“I think I’ll take it.”  
“Which one?”  
“All of it.”  
“All of it.” Hammer replied, his expression revealing his surprise. Rhodey resisted the urge to roll his eyes, deciding better than to point out that face-to-face deals was another issue that Hammer needed to work on.

Erin’s flight landed, but she didn’t move for several moment; inside the metal tube, she was away from the world and the people she trusted or cared about couldn’t hurt her. After nearly 5 minutes, Erin finally moved from her seat to see Jessica and Richie waiting for her alone. Once she saw them, Erin nearly turned around to go back into her metal safety tube before deciding better than it.  
“Where’s Pete?”  
“With Pepper, apparently she’s been asked to look after him for the next couple of days before we present.” Erin nodded, doing her best to hide the hurt threatening to overpower her as Richie led her and Jessica to the car.

The Prosthetics Center was a flurry of activity as Erin and Jessica arrived, both grinning as they watched multiple teams trying to finish up and ready the presentation for Friday night. Heading up to the lab, one of their team, Tadashi Sato, jogged over to them,  
“You heard who’s presenting after you?” The pair looked over with interest,  
“Turns out that Hammer Industries has some weapons demonstration. Hopefully, people won’t be too supportive after seeing our tech…” Erin and Jessica struggled to keep the grins off their faces at Tadashi’s comment,  
“How’s it coming?” Erin asked as she stepped in front of the team,  
“We’ve got the presentation set, the holographic demonstration and walk-about is taking a bit of time. It’ll be ready by Friday at this rate.” Erin nodded, not questioning if they could complete it sooner, she wanted it done as well as possible for the presentation.  
“Let’s show the world that we work for them.” Erin said with a smile, letting the team get back to work as she headed to her office to sign off on some paperwork.

Struggling to get through ten minutes of work, Erin finally relented and called Pepper’s work number.  
“Stark Industries, Ms. Potts’ line. You’re speaking to Natalie Rushman, how may I direct your call?” Erin resisted the urge to hang up,  
“Hey, Mary Howitt. Can you put anyone else on the phone?”   
“Erin? I… I can put…”  
“No, Natasha… I spoke to him. He explained a couple of things… just put Pete on, please.” She stammered. She let out a breath when she was put on hold for a moment until Peter answered,  
“Ma?”  
“Hey baby.” The pair stayed talking for several minutes before Erin got a call for her help in the lab.

Tony sat in the workshop looking through one of the boxes of his father’s work, he found several home videos along with old notebooks. Setting one of the videos playing, Tony sat back in his chair to read through one of the books, the video was his father making the Expo video. Tony wasn’t really listening until his name grabbed his attention,  
“ _Tony, what are you doing back there? What is that?_ ” Tony watched the video that showed him, only three or four-years-old, picking up one of the buildings from the model city,  
“ _Put that back. Put it back where you got it from. Where’s your mother? Maria? Go on. Go, go, go, go_.” A man came onto the screen and lifted Tony up, taking him from the room after replacing the building.

Turning his attention back to the notebook, Tony didn’t pay much more attention to the video as he read through the remaining information in the notebook. Letting out an annoyed sigh, Tony flicked through the blank pages of the notebook, the work was unfinished. Throwing the notebook to the side, he grabbed a glass just as his attention was brought back to the video.  
“ _Tony. You’re too young to understand this right now, so I thought I would put it on film for you._ ” Tony let his attention fully focus on the video, on his father, _  
“I built this for you. And someday you’ll realize that it represents a whole lot more than just people’s inventions. It represents my life’s work. This is the key to the future. I’m limited by the technology of my time, but one day you’ll figure this out. And when you do, you will change the world. What is and always will be my greatest creation is you_.” Tony’s breath caught in his throat as tears welled in his eyes. Why hadn’t Howard told him any of this?!

Tony’s mind went to Peter, a little boy who he adored and just wanted to protect and nurture. He wanted to make sure that the boy knew that he was the most precious thing in Tony’s life, the most important part of his world. He needed to survive for Erin and Peter, but he needed to make things right first. He needed to apologize to the people that mattered the most to him, starting with Pepper.

Tony tensely made his way to Stark Industries HQ, heading up to Pepper’s office, a box of strawberries in his hand. On his way up, he caught sight of Peter in one of the vacant offices, deciding that the 10-year-old required his attention for a moment, he let apologizing to Pepper be pushed to the back of his mind,  
“Hey Little Man.” Peter looked up at Tony, a large grin covering his features,  
“Whatcha doing?” Peter shrugged, returning his attention to the formulas he was writing,  
“Look, Pete, I wanted to tell you a few things,” Tony said as he knelt down next to the boy, placing the strawberries on the desk. He tried to decide how to tell a child, who he loved like a son, that he was dying and would probably be dead by the end of the month.  
“Well, first off, I wanted to tell you that I love you, no matter what, you’re my kid. Never let anyone tell you differently.” Peter nodded, looking at Tony with his full attention,  
“And I’m sorry, that I’ve put you and your Ma through so much,”  
“Wouldn’t change it, Tony.” Peter said softly,  
“You might not, but I’ve put you and your Ma in danger a lot recently.” Peter glanced over briefly, the familiar jolting motion caused Tony to close his eyes for a moment, Peter only ever did them when he was upset or scared.  
“Pete, you mean the world to me. Never let anyone tell you any differently. You and your Ma are two of the most important people to have ever come into my life, I don’t deserve the pair of you…” Tony didn’t get to finish thanks to a small pair of arms wrapping tightly around him.

Peter clung tightly to Tony and the man couldn’t help smiling as he closed his eyes, Peter was so much like Erin.  
“Don’t leave… please, I don’t want you to go…” Peter whimpered, his face burrowing into Tony’s neck, the words broke Tony’s heart as he hugged Peter tighter.   
“I’ll try my best not to, Petey, I promise.” Tony’s voice trembled slightly; he meant his promise – he would try. He didn’t know if he could make good on his promise though. He might only have two weeks left to live. Tony spent several minutes holding Peter, trying to memorize the boy in his arms while trying to stop the tears pooling in his eyes.

Tony grinned when he noticed Peter nicking a strawberry from the box, the boy giggled as he took a bite.   
“Listen, I’ve got to go and make amends with Pepper, but I’ll see you tonight?”  
“We’re going to the airport to join Ma in New York tonight.” Peter confessed, messing with his sleeve slightly and avoiding Tony’s gaze,  
“Well then, I’ll just have to make sure that I turn up for her presentation.” Peter’s grin melted Tony’s heart when he saw the pure joy spread across the boy’s features before letting Peter return to his project. He watched as the boy continued to eat the strawberries that he’d brought for Pepper, but they seemed to go down well with Peter. He kissed the top of Peter’s head before walking away, leaving Peter in the office.

Heading into Pepper’s office, Tony knew that it was going to be a much tenser conversation, a PA moved ahead of Tony to announce his presence to Pepper, but Tony hardly paid her any attention,  
“It was an illegal seizure of trademark property.” He heard Pepper say as she spoke over the phone, Tony tensed at the thought of Rhodey.  
“Miss Potts?” The PA said as she opened the door further, “Mr. Stark…”  
“Is here.” Tony finished, causing the PA to send him a sharp look, it didn’t matter that he was still CEO, Pepper was this woman’s boss.  
“He refuses…” She began again, addressing Pepper,  
“I don’t. It’s fine. I’ll just be a second.” Tony walked passed the PA into the office, letting the door close behind him, he watched as Pepper spoke on the phone,  
“Listen, it’s our position that Mr. Stark and Doctor Walker have and continue to maintain propriety ownership of the Mark II platform.”

Tony turned his attention to the TV where a reporter seemed to just be ranting about him.  
“ _When Mr. Stark announced he was indeed Iron Man, he was making a promise to America._ ” He heard Pepper still arguing that the suits belonged to them, Tony bit his tongue at the thought that they belonged to him and Erin, not Pepper.  
“ _We trusted that he would look out for us._ _He obviously did not. And now we learn that his secretary a woman named Virginia “Pepper” Potts, has been appointed as a Secondary CEO of Stark Industries. What are her qualifications? Miss Potts has done nothing to manage this terrible…”_ Tony rolled his eyes as Pepper continued to argue with the person on the phone,  
“Mute.” Tony muttered and the TV fell silent.

Turning his attention away from the TV, Tony’s eyes landed on some boxes and things in the corner of the room while Pepper continued to argue,  
“No… Burt… Burt… Burt, listen to me. Don’t tell me that we have the best patent lawyers in the country and then not let me pursue this.”  
“I’ll get this stuff out of here.” Tony motioned to the boxes while Pepper just glared at him,  
“ Well, then, tell the President to sign an order. We’ll talk about it at the Expo.” Heading over to the stack of boxes, Tony pulled back a sheet to reveal the model from his father’s video, “Erin Walker is giving a medical presentation followed by Hammer tomorrow evening. Will Tony Stark be there?”  
“Will I?” Tony asked, he’d just promised Peter that he would be, and he intended to make good on that promise, even if it pissed Pepper off.  
“No, he will not. Bye.” Pepper glared at Tony as she finished the call.  
“I would like to be.” Tony muttered before turning to address the reason he was in her office.

Tony took a breath as he sat down,  
“Got a minute?”  
“No.”  
“Come on, you just got off the phone. You’re fine. 30 seconds.” Pepper began counting down as she looked at her watch,  
“I was just driving over here, and I thought I was coming to basically apologize, but I’m not.”  
“You didn’t come here to apologize?” Pepper asked condescendingly,  
“Look, that goes without saying, and I’m working on that. But I haven’t been entirely upfront with you, and I just want to try to make good.” Tony got distracted by a small model spinning on the desk, “can I move this? This is crazy. It’s like a Ferris wheel, going. I’m trying to get some…”  
“No.” Tony pushed the chair to the other side of the desk,  
“Do you know how short life is? And if I never got to express… And by the way, this is somewhat revelatory to me. And I don’t care… I mean, I care. It would be nice. I’m not expecting you to… Look, here’s what I’m trying to say. I’m just gonna say it.”  
“Let me stop you right here, okay? Because if you say “I” one more time, I’m gonna actually hurl something at your head, I think. I am trying to run a company. Do you have any idea what that entails?”  
“Yes.” Tony replied tensely.

Pepper brushed him off, thinking that what he was saying could wait. In that moment, Tony decided that she didn’t need to know what was really going on with him, she didn’t notice and didn’t care to notice.  
“People are relying on you to be Iron Man and you’ve disappeared, and all I’m doing is putting out your fires and taking the heat of it. I am trying to do the job that you were meant to do.”  
“I’ve got another question: how come Peter’s staying with you? Shouldn’t he be with May? She’s his legal guardian when he isn’t staying with me or Erin.” Pepper just narrowed her eyes at Tony, acting like it was a ridiculous question.

At that moment, Natasha entered the room, clearly acting in the role of Natalie,  
“Ms. Potts?” She asked as she entered the room,  
“Hi, come on in.”  
“Wheels up in 25 minutes,” Natasha said, Tony raised an eyebrow; Peter had said that they would be going to see Erin in New York this evening, not now. He missed Pepper thanking the woman,  
“Anything else, boss?” Happy asked,   
“I’m good, Hap.”  
“No, I’ll be just another minute.” Pepper and Tony said at the same time,  
“I lost both the kids in the divorce.” Tony laughed as Happy shook his head, Tony turned his attention back to Natasha,  
“Are you blending in well here, Natalie? Here are Stark Enterprises? Your name is Natalie, isn’t it? I thought you two didn’t get along?” Tony muttered when he noticed Pepper and Natasha interacting,  
“No. That’s not so.” Pepper replied defensively,  
“It’s just me you don’t care for. No? Nothing?”  
“Actually, while you’re here maybe you and Natalie could discuss the matter of the personal belongings.”  
“Absolutely.” Natasha responded.

Tony waited silently while Pepper and Happy left the room,  
“I’m surprised you can keep your mouth shut.” Natasha snapped,  
“Boy, you’re good. You are mind-blowingly duplicitous. How do you do it? You just tear things… You’re a triple imposter. I’ve never seen anything like you.” Natasha glared sharply at him, “take it you’re the one who got Erin shipped off.”  
“Erin was employed as an external contractor with S.H.I.E.L.D., she quit the contract yesterday.” Natasha confessed, Tony raised an eyebrow at the pain in the woman’s eyes, “severed all ties.” Natasha muttered. She headed towards the door before turning back to Tony,  
“You can either drive yourself home or I can have you collected.” She said as she left the room.

Tony watched her leave before his eyes landed on the spinning model, he piled things up until the object stopped spinning. He headed back over to the model, looking it over skeptically before finally concluding that he needed it. Tony managed to get all the pieces down to the convertible before driving home.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erin is joined by her family while Tony works tirelessly to discover something that could save his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that it took me so long to update, I meant to update the other day but work is exhausting. I might have to slow down updates to one a week rather than every other day in order to keep the updates regular xx

Peter sat on the plane miserably as he looked out the window. He’d managed to head to the back of the plane away from Pepper, Happy, and Natalie, he glanced over to them every few minutes, but he mostly chose to just stare at the clouds out of the window. Natalie came over to him about halfway through the flight,  
“Hey, Peter. What’s wrong?”  
“Where’s Tony? He promised that he’d come along to see Ma’s presentation.” Natalie looked at the boy sadly,  
“He might join us tomorrow, but he’s got some work to do first.” She said softly, Peter turned back towards the window, Natasha knew that he didn’t believe her lie, but he didn’t comment on it for now.

The plane landed just before 8pm, meaning that Peter was hungry and grouchy thanks to being tired. He seemed to liven up the second that he saw Erin waiting for them with Richie and May. The boy ran over to his Ma and aunt, not listening as Pepper called for him to slow down. Erin and May both caught the boy in a joint hug as soon as he reached them, both grinning as they hugged the 8-year-old.

Stepping away, Erin sent a harsh glare over to Natasha, but she decided against saying anything about S.H.I.E.L.D. for the time being,  
“Let’s go get some food, I’ve got an hour or so before I’m needed again.” Peter held Erin’s hand tightly as he climbed into the car between her and May while Happy, Natasha, and Pepper were in the car behind,  
“Ma? Where’s Tony?”  
“He’s gonna try and join us tomorrow, Baby, but some work came up that he couldn’t avoid.” Erin told him, kissing the top of his head.

The group headed to the HQ where Erin told one of the admin staff to take Natasha to the cafeteria and keep an eye on her. Natasha couldn’t fully hide her hurt, it felt as though Erin had slapped her, but she couldn’t deny that she felt as though she deserved it. Leading Peter up to the main research lab, Erin smiled fondly at the boy’s grin upon seeing the chaos of the teams prepping for the presentation the following evening.  
“What’s up with you and Natalie?” Pepper asked, “I thought she was your friend.”  
“So did I.” Erin said before heading over to her own desk where her POD work was strewn across the table. The group were there for a little over ten minutes to allow Erin to collect her things before they headed out for food.

The group were seated in a restaurant, listening to Peter talk animatedly about what he’d been doing over the past couple of days. Throughout the entire time that Peter was talking, Erin didn’t stop watching how Natasha interacted with the boy, she heard Natasha encouraging Peter with questions and inputting comments every now and then. Erin’s eyes narrowed slightly, but it was enough for Pepper to notice, an elbow to the side grabbed Erin’s attention causing her to look over to Pepper, the woman raised a questioning eyebrow and motioned to Natasha, Erin just shrugged, making it seem nonimportant.

Natasha closed her eyes briefly as Erin looked away, she knew that she wanted to repair the blossoming friendship that she’d found in the genius, she just didn’t know how to go about it. Yet. Natasha returned her attention to Peter, letting him keep talking as they ate, she kept him engaged with the conversation digressing to the part Peter played in the making of the Expo,  
“Tony said that I gotta help, he wanted me to be involved ‘cos he wanted me to be able to call it my own.” The nine-year-old explained as he ate, Natasha watched and encouraged him, asking him where he was involved.

After an hour, the group all headed to Erin’s penthouse in New York. Peter headed to his bedroom, towing May to show her everything in his room, meanwhile, Happy and Pepper headed to the kitchen for coffee. Richie had left them at the restaurant. Erin looked over to Natasha, a cautious look in her eyes,  
“Look, Nata… Natasha, I just wanna say thanks… for the way you were talking to Pete earlier.” Natasha nodded, deciding to remain silent,  
“I talked to Clint, he, uh, he told me about how he saved your life…” Erin wrung her hands together, looking down to the floor as she spoke, she didn’t notice Natasha smiling,  
“He’d call me, y’know, when you were in the hospital. He adored you, constantly telling me about everything you were doing.” Natasha stepped closer to Erin, cautious in her approach, she wanted to make things right and she would take however long was necessary to do so.

Erin watched Natasha move towards her and she couldn’t help tensing,  
“I never meant to hurt you, Erin. You were kind to me despite not really knowing who I was.” Erin sat down on the couch, looking critically at Natasha,  
“Was it all fake?”  
“Only the name and job. The comments, jokes and everything else was real.” Nodding, Erin moved over to let Natasha sit down,  
“Y’know, I can’t trust you right now, but I think I can learn to.” She muttered; a smile instantly ripped across Natasha’s features at the words. It was a few minutes later that Erin headed to her lab to finalize the necessary information that she needed for the presentation the following evening.

Tony set the Expo model up on the desk in the workshop, he couldn’t help but feel glad that he hadn’t run into the agent tasked with babysitting him, he rolled his eyes at the idea. Turning his attention back to the model,  
“JARVIS, could you kindly Vac-U-Form a digital wire frame? I need a manipulable projection.”  
“1974 Stark Expo model scan complete, Sir.” JARVIS responded after a moment.

Tony nodded as he lifted the blue projection away from the model and over to an open area in the workshop.  
“How many buildings are there?” Tony asked, looking over the model,  
“Am I to include the Belgium waffle stands?” JARVIS snarked earning a glare at one of the sensors from Tony,  
“That was rhetorical. Just show me.” The buildings were all highlighted in red, letting them be clearly seen. Tony clicked his fingers and spun the model, turning it vertically,  
“What does that look like to you JARVIS? Not unlike an atom. In which case the nucleus would be here. Highlight the unisphere. Lose the footpaths. Get rid of them.” He swiped his hand to throw away the parts he wanted rid of,  
“What is it that you’re trying to achieve, Sir?” JARVIS asked, confusion and curiosity in the voice,  
“I’m discovering… Correction. I’m rediscovering a new element, I believe.” Tony muttered before returning his attention to throwing things away from the model,  
“Lose the landscaping, the shrubbery, the trees. Parking lots, exits, entrances. Structure the protons and the neutrons using the pavilions as a framework.” He clapped his hands before throwing his arms wide, the model now resembled an atom in structure.

Looking around, Tony couldn’t stop himself from smiling as he spun slowly in his chair,  
“Dad.” He muttered, “dead for almost 20 years, and still taking me to school.” He snapped the model down until it fitted in his hands, “thanks dad,” he muttered as he looked over the small projection in his fingers.

Not taking his eyes off of the atom, Tony summoned over one of the suit projections,  
“Mark VI, front and center,” he loaded up several more holo-projections as he did so, turning to face the suit in question. Placing the projected atom into the arc reactor of the holo-suit, Tony watched tensely to see if it would fail like all the other ones he’d tried in the past few weeks.  
“Sir, this implies a theoretical element that is not currently found on the periodic table.” JARVIS pointed out, but Tony didn’t pay much attention for a moment,  
“I will run a simulation to check element viability.” JARVIS said after a moment, Tony glanced up with a smile,  
“Yeah, listen, you have a ball with that, I know it’s gonna work. I’m gonna take a shower.” Tony muttered before getting up and heading for the door,  
“Tap the Oracle Grid, I need some stuff out of storage, get me everything from projects: Pegasus, Exodus, and Goliath.” He called over as he reached the door.  
“Get ready for a major remodel, fellas. We’re back in hardware mode.” With that, Tony left the room.

Erin loaded up an episode of Doctor Who, not paying attention to it all that much when a text came through on her phone,  
‘From: Copernicus  
Hey. I know you said that you were done with us except for necessities, but I think there’re some things that I need to share with you when you’ve got a free afternoon and can join me. Gotta wait for this assignment to be over first.’

Closing her eyes, Erin hesitated before replying,  
‘To: Copernicus  
Can’t do the next two weeks.’ She sent the message and threw her phone onto the other side of her super-king-sized bed. A moment later, Erin grabbed her phone again and dialed Tony’s number only to go instantly to voicemail. Raising an eyebrow, Erin decided to just leave a message,  
“Ok, so I get the voicemail now? Seems harsh, I mean I know I didn’t come and find you after the party, but I was in New Mexico, not my choice. Also, I’m sorry about what happened at the party, guess you can put that on me too, I did tell you to have it. Didn’t know Rhodey was gonna take a suit though… I get it if you don’t wanna talk to me, I mean, that’s a given by the fact that I’m leaving _you_ a voicemail, but, uh, just call me, ok? I don’t, can’t lose you now. I’ll be home soon.”

Erin was crying by the end of her message; she didn’t know what to do. The POD was still unfinished, she hadn’t fully completed the coding yet, and by now it was too late, Tony didn’t have time for her to finish it and save him. It could stop the poisoning already in him, but it wouldn’t prevent the poisoning. Throwing her phone off the bed, Erin curled up under her blanket, not even bothering to disconnect the arm as she hugged herself. Eventually, Erin fell asleep, practically crying herself to sleep as she thought about the fact that she’d pretty much lost her godfather, her friend, a new friend, and one of her best friends, all in one day. She tried to block the nagging voice in the back of her mind that told her that Tony was dying too, blocking the thought from her mind as best she could.

Back at the Malibu Mansion, Tony was upgrading the machines in order to synthesize the element he’d discovered. He took a sledgehammer to one of the walls, revealing the wiring contained inside. Dropping the hammer to the ground, Tony jogged back upstairs to drill open the floor and allow him access to the main control panel for the building’s wiring, Dum-E stood holding the blueprints in his claw while Tony worked. Grabbing some wires, Tony began improving the cabling to allow for the machines to produce what he needed. It took the better part of an hour to fit the cables to the circuit board before Tony drilled a hole into the workshop to drop the cables through.

Tony was barely finished when the items he’d requested from the projects Pegasus, Exodus, and Goliath arrived: all the items that he would need to build a particle accelerator. He connected the large pipes to the hole he’d knocked into the wall, securing them in a full circle, using random objects he’d found in the ‘shop and Erin’s lab in order to make sure that the coil was perfectly level. However, there was still an area that he was having an issue with; it wasn’t staying level.

Agent Darryl made his way down to the workshop, he’d been called to assist Coulson in New Mexico due to the treat of an attack. Opening the door, Darryl sternly looked at the coil, knowing full well that Tony had broken the perimeter in order to obtain everything that he’d needed.  
“I heard you broke the perimeter.” He said as Tony continued to secure the parts of the coil, checking to make sure that each join was level.  
“Yeah. That was, like, three years ago. Where have you been?” Tony muttered,  
“I was doing some stuff.”  
“Yeah, well, me too and it worked.” Darryl headed over to one of the crates in the workshop, “hey, I’m playing for the home team Darryl, you and all your Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. Now, are you gonna let me work or break my balls?” Darryl didn’t look over, instead pulling a half-finished project from the crate that he’d been looking in,  
“What’s this doing here?” He asked accusingly, Tony looked at it for a moment with slightly wide eyes,  
“That’s it. Bring that to me.” Darryl headed over with a raised eyebrow,  
“You know what this is?” Taking the shield from the agent, Tony spoke up,  
“It’s exactly what I need to make this work.” He looked over, “lift the coil. Go, go. Put your knees into it. There you go. And…” Tony slid the shield into place underneath the join in the coil, “drop it. Drop it.” Tony grabbed the spirit level that he’d been using and placed it over the two pieces, “perfectly level.” He muttered.

Dropping the spirit level back on the desk behind him, Tony turned to Agent Darryl, a critical glare fixed on the agent,  
“I’m busy. What do you want?”  
“Nothing. Goodbye.” Tony looked at the man blankly before he continued,  
“I’ve been reassigned. Director Fury wants me in New Mexico.”  
“Fantastic. Land of Enchantment.”  
“So I’m told.”  
“Secret stuff?” Tony asked with realization after a moment,  
“Something like that. Good luck.”  
“Bye. Thanks.” The pair shook hands briefly,  
“We need you.” Darryl admitted as he stepped back.  
“Yeah, more than you know.” Scoffing, Darryl turned back to him,  
“Not that much.” Tony watched the man leave before returning his attention to finishing the coil. His deadline was closing in if he wanted to make it to Erin’s presentation the following evening in New York, over 2000 miles away and 3 hours ahead of him in Malibu.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony and Erin are both making their final preparations, both setting up for what could potentially be catastrophic. Though there is something else, just a little something from Erin to protect Tony.

It took Tony another two hours to finish building everything he needed before he could begin synthesizing the new element. Tony slotted a cube of titanium into the accelerator, lining it up with the small, metal triangle that would be used to contain the element. Once everything was set up, Tony switched on the accelerator which caused the lights to dim. Pulling off his shirt and putting on a pair of safety goggles, Tony headed back over to the coil.  
“Initializing prismatic accelerator.” The power began building, Tony tried to turn the wheel on top of the coil only to find that there wasn’t enough strength to turn it. A laser began to build across the titanium square. Tony grabbed a large wrench from the other side of the coil, using it as an extra lever to turn the wheel.  
“Approaching maximum power.” JARVIS said as the wheel finally began to turn. Tony didn’t stop as the laser began to cut into the wall and anything obstructing its path, including wires, until it was finally concentrated on the triangle. After several moments, the triangle began to glow blue.

As soon as the triangle reached a blinding light, Tony switched off the machine, waiting for a moment for everything to fall still,  
“That was easy.” He muttered before ducking under the coil and heading over to the still-glowing triangle. Pulling off his goggles, Tony sat down in front of the equipment holding the triangle. Grabbing a pair of pliers, he lifted the triangle out of the device and held it up, looking it over for a moment,  
“Congratulations sir. You have created a new element.” Tony silently placed the new core into an arc reactor on the desk,   
“Sir, the reactor has accepted the modified core. I will begin running diagnostics.” JARVIS told him.

Tony smirked as he left the workshop, heading up to get a shower and change. He glanced around at the damage he’d done to the building, trying to decide if Erin would be impressed with his achievement or annoyed at the damage to their home. Freezing, Tony took a moment to think about when he began considering the mansion as their home. He couldn’t stop the small smile that crossed his lips as he contemplated the idea. Glancing around, he noticed that it had become their weird family’s home; Peter’s toys and projects were strewn around, Erin’s notebooks had collected in a pile on the coffee table, Pepper’s coffee was on the side in the kitchen, Rhodey’s jacket was still slung over the back of the couch. Tony silently laughed as he left the living room to go and get his shower.

Over in New York, it was fair to say that chaos took a physical form in the main HQ for Walker Industries. People were moving desperately in an attempt to finish everything and complete the necessary projects in time for the 20:30 presentation at the Stark Expo. Erin sat at her desk, finalizing the reports and demonstration holograms that would be used to show the actions of the PODs. They had just over 6 hours before their presentation, she still hadn’t heard from Tony, but she was blocking it from her mind in order to focus on the task.

Jessica made her way into her boss/best friend’s office,   
“Erin, it’s madness!” She exclaimed as she dropped another file onto Erin’s desk, Erin opened it and read the title before dropping it closed again,  
“Final report from the project team.” Jessica muttered, perching on Erin’s desk, “you heard from your Copernicus?”  
“Is this really the time?!” Erin snapped before instantly feeling guilty, “sorry… I’m just stressed. Everything with the presentation and Tony and Natalie…”   
“What’s up with Nat?”   
“It’s complicated.” Erin muttered as she signed the file she was reading, submitting it into IRIS’ folders.   
“Is ROSCOE ready to activate?” Jessica asked, changing topics back to the new medical AI that would be taking over from IRIS while IRIS took back her place as Erin’s personal AI.   
“Not quite. Couple more days.” Erin muttered before shooing Jessica back to the lab in order for them both to finish their work.

Erin didn’t get to do much more work because Richie made his way into the office,  
“You’ve been given permission to have the Iron Raven suit at the Expo. I’ll be keeping guard of it.” Richie said as he stood opposite Erin, the woman nodded, not even looking up from the new file,  
“What about Peter? What’s his security looking like?”  
“Three security guards at points where they’ll be able to see him. Sat with Pepper, May, and Natalie Rushman. Happy waiting out at the car in case he needs to be taken out of there.” Erin nodded, finally looking up from her file to look over Richie, she hoped that the Expo wouldn’t have any problems, but she knew that it was a risk to take Peter so soon after telling the world that she had a son while there were people out there who wanted her dead.  
“Anything from Tony?” Erin wasn’t surprised when Richie shook his head.  
“Went straight to voicemail again.” He said, Erin nodded, dismissing him from the room to let her get back to finishing her work.

Tony sat at his desk as he finished clearing up the particle accelerator, Dum-E and U were trying to be of assistance while Butterfingers had elected to just stay back for the time being,  
“Dum-E, U, can we clean up this mess? You’re killing me. You know I don’t…” A ringing on the screen grabbed Tony’s attention,  
“Incoming call with a blocked number.” JARVIS said as Tony looked over to the screen,  
“Phone privileges reinstated.” Tony muttered before answering the call,  
“Darryl. How’s the Land of Enchantment?” He asked only to have a vaguely familiar, accented voice respond,  
“Hey, Tony, how you doing? I double cycle.” Tony moved backwards slightly in confusion,  
“You what?”   
“You told me double cycle’s more power. Good advice.” Tony’s eyes widened momentarily as he figured out who he was talking to – Vanko,  
“You sound pretty sprightly for a dead guy.”  
“You too.” Tony muted the microphone before ordering JARVIS to trace the call,  
“Now, the true history of Stark name will be written.” Vanko continued,  
“Jarvis, where is he?” Panic was edging into Tony’s voice as he looked at the map JARVIS was displaying on the screen,  
“Accessing the Oracle grid. Eastern Seaboard.” The map continued to focus in as the trace became more precise.  
“What your father did to my family over 40 years, I will do to you in 40 minutes.” Vanko continued, but Tony wasn’t paying too much attention to his words, Tony unmuted his microphone to respond,  
“Sounds good. Let’s get together and hash it out.” He quickly muted again just as JARVIS spoke up,  
“Tri-State area. Manhattan and outlying boroughs.”  
“I hope you’re ready.” Vanko said menacingly before ending the call.  
“Call trace incomplete.” JARVIS admitted.

Tony glanced over to the TV screen that was talking about Erin’s presentation,  
“ _Everyone is waiting to hear exactly what the Doctor and her team of incredible minds have created, her history of discovery has always left the nation and the world in awe of what this team of medical researchers and engineers are able to create._ ” The reporter continued on, but Tony stopped listening until the reporter mention that Hammer was the presentation to follow Erin’s.

Panic flaring in Tony’s chest, he quickly ordered JARVIS to call Erin and link himself with IRIS,  
“ _Oh, nice of you to finally call_ ” Erin snarked, Tony could practically hear the relieved smile in her voice,  
“Yeah, was on house arrest thanks to your dear uncle.” Erin just groaned, “please tell me you’ve brought your suit to the Expo.”   
“Of course, why?”  
“Vanko’s alive.” Erin just gasped slightly,   
“Tones, Peter’s gonna be here.”   
“Might be that nothing happens, but just be prepared.”  
“Ok. Look, I can’t talk long, we’ve got just over 30 minutes until we’re presenting. You sure you’ll make it in time if Vanko does show up?”  
“I’m gonna have to. By the way, I’ve discovered a new element.”  
“Holy fuck. You did it without me?!” Tony couldn’t stop himself from laughing at Erin’s reaction.  
“Will it work?”  
“JARVIS is running tests, don’t know what it’ll do to the existing palladium poisoning.”  
“Hey, go to my desk, second drawer down, there’s a POD. It won’t prevent the poisoning, but it’s programmed to replace the cells that are damaged.” Tony lifted the small device, it was barely the size of a penny,   
“You sure it works?”  
“You sure your new element works?” Tony tilted his head to the side Erin comment. She ended the call after another few minutes in order to go and prepare for the presentation.

Flipping the POD over in his hands, Tony couldn’t stop himself from looking at it cautiously, it seemed too small. He knew that the POD embedded in Erin’s prosthetic was at least the size of a golf ball, but this… it was tiny.   
“According to IRIS, it is designed to be embedded in the center of the electromagnet in your chest. It won’t interfere with the magnet’s function.” Tony looked up at JARVIS’ sensor uncertainly, he wanted to put it in, but he’d need to be ready to switch the reactor for the new replacement before he could fit the POD.

After several more moments of debating, Tony grabbed the new reactor and headed over to one of the screens, turning it into a mirror. JARVIS was right, the POD fit perfectly in the center of the magnet. The palladium lines instantly began to slowly fade, the ones on his neck were quick to disappear. Tony fitted the new arc reactor causing JARVIS to begin protecting,  
“You want to run some tests, run them.” He said as he locked the reactor in place, “and assemble the suit while you’re at it. Put it together now.”  
“We are unclear as to the effects.” JARVIS countered, but Tony wasn’t in the mood, Peter and Erin might be in danger, so could Pepper and Happy. His family.  
“I don’t want to hear it Jarvis.” The reactor was gaining power,  
“That tastes like coconut. And metal. Oh wow, yeah!” The reactor reached full power and stabilized.

Erin looked over her team, each doing their final checks while she loaded up a message from JARVIS on her watch, it told her that the palladium poisoning and blood toxicity in Tony’s body was decreasing,  
“He’s gonna be ok.” Erin murmured, a smile making its way onto her lips. She didn’t care if Tony missed her presentation so long as it meant that he was ok.   
“Boss. We’re on in five minutes.” Tadashi told her, Erin nodded and fastened the buttons of her suit jacket, fixing the microphone on her lapel, and closing down the message from JARVIS.  
“Rich, be ready.” She told her bodyguard before the team were signaled onto the stage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I wanted to include a POD to neutralize the palladium poisoning because it always bugged me in the film that the new reactor instantly took away the poisoning without Tony having to detox.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erin and her team present their POD, but Peter can't help but feel gutted thanks to the fact that Tony missed it. It's only moments later when everything goes to Hell, the reason: Hammer Industries.

Erin led her team confidently onto the stage to the sound of applause, the group all took up their places as the holograms loaded up at the center of the stage, large enough for everyone to clearly see them. As the crowd fell silent, Erin took a breath before beginning her speech,  
“For far too long, people with an illness have been left to suffer while the rich and powerful kept the perfect treatment to themselves. Treatments that cost enough to buy large houses. But not this.” Erin watched as Jessica clapped and the main POD display loaded up, projecting the POD in an assembled format.  
“This may not look like much,” Erin continued, “in reality, this device is about the size of a golf ball, I must say that it’s probably left you all questioning ‘how can that be revolutionary?’ well, let’s hear from some of my team members who have worked impossibly hard over the last eight months to bring this impossibility to a very real object.”

Jessica took over as she flicked her wrist, letting the POD fall into the holo-display to show how the nanotech could be utilized,  
“You’re right to think that this isn’t much, because this is purely a housing unit for work that, until recently, was considered impossible. As you can see, the device, a POD – Particle Organization Device, is a catalyst that allows for much more intricate work to happen.” Walking over to the hologram, Jessica began explaining what it was showing,  
“This portrays a very basic use of an external POD, connected to a wristband that allows nanotechnology to seep into the skin to fight diseases such as the cold or the flu. Doesn’t really sound all that impressive.” Jessica changed the hologram to display the nanotechnology attacking a more severe illness, in this case, meningitis,  
“What you are seeing is the nanotechnology attacking the cells of the protective membrane around the spine and brain. It is attacking the cells affected by meningitis. As you can see, it doesn’t just destroy the infected areas, but the particles transform into biological cells, taking the place of the previously destroyed cells.”

The team carried on for a few more minutes before Erin stepped to centerstage, she glanced around the crowd who’d been responding in awe of the technology that the team were presenting.  
“One of the more… personal uses of this technology, one that has touched home with me, is that this can be used in a very unique way in the case of prosthetic limbs. The POD for this is slightly larger and is embedded within the prosthetic. What it does is release the nanotech as nerves, flowing constantly through the limb, it allows for a person to have the sense of touch in the prosthetic.” There was a round of applause that spread through the audience at the idea,  
“This is for our special forces who have lost a limb defending freedom. For our children who were born without a limb or lost one in an accident. For our brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, friends. This technology is not being held out of reach of anyone.” The applause only grew as Erin finished speaking.

Bowing, and thanking the audience, the team headed off stage to where Richie was waiting, he instantly wrapped Erin in a hug. Pulling her close and congratulating her on the presentation.

Out in the audience, Peter sat wide-eyed as he watched his Ma walk off the stage with her team, the hologram bursting to display the Walker Industries diamond logo before closing completely. Glancing at the seat next to him, Peter couldn’t help himself feeling slightly irritated at the fact that Tony had broken his promise. He hadn’t been there to watch Ma.   
“What’s wrong?” May asked when she saw the boy’s annoyance, “didn’t you like it?”  
“Tony wasn’t here.” He mumbled, scuffing his shoe against the ground. Pepper and Natasha both looked over,  
“Pete, honey, you knew that he might be tied down with work. He said that before we left.” Pepper offered softly,  
“Yeah, but that was a lie. It wasn’t real. He promised he wouldn’t go away…” Peter said, pulling on his toy Iron Man helmet to hide the fact that he was starting to cry. He just wanted his Tony back. His Ma wasn’t as happy anymore, not since Monaco, it was even worse since they came to New York – she hardly spoke.

Peter stared at the empty stage, contemplating the fact that his Ma wasn’t happy; she seemed cold to Natalie too, but she’d been friends with the woman before she’d gone away after Tony’s birthday. There were more things that his Ma wouldn’t tell him either, Peter realized, she used to tell him all the places that she went, now she tried to distract him. He glanced over to see Pepper and Natalie debating something quietly while May watched him with curiosity. Peter messed with the toy repulsor gloves that Tony had given him on his birthday – they were Iron Raven ones rather than Iron Man, but Peter preferred them.

Backstage, Erin’s phone began ringing, she raised an eyebrow when she saw it was Tony, knowing he wouldn’t just be calling to see how the presentation went.  
“Y’know the Vanko problem?” Tony began, skipping all greetings, “think he’s working for Hammer. Suit up and meet me.” Erin nodded but didn’t speak as she jogged over to the suit, passing her phone to Richie as she went. As soon as the suit closed, Erin took off into the sky, connecting the joint HUD as she went.  
“On your 3 o’clock.” Erin stated as she flew towards Tony.

Peter and the rest of the audience watched as the Iron Raven took into the air, Peter looked up in confusion, not that anyone could see it thanks to the helmet. He turned to May, still refusing to take his helmet off,  
“Where’s Ma going?”   
“I don’t know.” May said slowly, her own confusion edging into her voice. They watched as the light following Erin dimmed into the distance.

Not five minutes later, Justin Hammer walked onto the stage with a round of applause greeting him.  
“Ladies and gentlemen, for far too long, this country has had to place its brave men and women in harm’s way, but then the Iron Man arrived, and we thought the days of losing lives were behind us. Sadly, that technology was kept out of reach. That’s not fair. That’s not right. And it’s just too bad.” Pepper couldn’t stop herself from rolling her eyes at Hammer’s words. The man grabbed onto the podium as he reached it.  
“Regardless, it was an impressive innovation, one that grabbed the headlines the world over. Well, today, my friends, the press is faced with quite a difficult problem. They are about to run out of ink.” An uncertain applause echoed around the room, but it was clear that people weren’t too sure.

Two women ran onto the stage to take the podium away, Hammer called some comment over to them as they stepped off the stage. He turned back to the audience,  
“Ladies and gentlemen, today I present to you the new face of the United States military. The Hammer Drone.” Drones started to rise onto the stage as he called out organization names,  
“Army! Navy! Air Force! Marines!” The applause was much louder this time, but not from Peter, May, Natasha, and Pepper, they remained still and silent,  
“Yeah! Yeah! Woo! That’s a hell of a lot better than some cheerleaders, let me tell you.” Hammer continued,   
“But as revolutionary as this technology is, there will always be a need for man to be present in the theatre of war. Ladies and gentlemen, today I am proud to present to you the very first prototype in the Variable Threat Response Battle Suit and its pilot, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes.”

At the name, the group all looked to be in shock. Rhodey hadn’t just stolen a suit, he’d then gone and given it to Hammer. They watched, shocked, as the drones all saluted Rhodey.  
“For America and its allies, Hammer Industries is reporting for…” Hammer fell silent when Iron Man and Iron Raven flew down, landing side by side on stage in symmetrical positions. The crowd went wild, so did Peter.  
“He didn’t miss it!” Peter yelled as he jumped to his feet. May, Pepper, and Natasha all smiled at the boy.

Up on stage, Erin and Tony took no notice of the crowd as the made their way to either side of Rhodey,  
“We got trouble.” Tony said as he stopped at Rhodey’s side, the other man wasn’t in the joint HUD, but JARVIS was working on it.  
“Guy, there are civilians present. I’m here on orders. Let’s not do this right now.” Erin rolled her eyes as the suit’s internal cameras showed Rhodey,  
“Give ‘em a wave,” Erin said as she and Tony waved, Rhodey reluctantly joined in.  
“All these people are in danger. We gotta get them out of here. You gotta trust me for the next five minutes.” Rhodey narrowed his eyes through the HUD,  
“Yeah, I tried that. I got tossed around your house, remember?”  
“Trust me?” Erin asked, glancing between the videos of the two men,  
“Listen, we think he’s working with Vanko.” Tony filled in,  
“Vanko’s alive?” Erin nodded while Tony made his way over to Hammer.

Stopping right in front of Hammer, Tony kept his back to the crowd,  
“Where is he?” He demanded,  
“What?” Hammer stammered, but playing dumb wasn’t going to work, not now.  
“Where’s Vanko?” Erin demanded as she made her way over to stand beside Tony.  
“Who?” Apparently, Hammer hadn’t gotten the memo about not playing dumb.  
“Tell me.” Tony growled as he grew fed up with the games,  
“What are you doing here man?” Hammer asked, trying desperately to change the topic, at that moment, Rhodey’s weapons began locking on to his two best friends, as did the weapons of the drones behind him.

Erin and Tony shared a look of confusion as they watched Rhodey’s weapons power up,  
“Is that you?” Tony asked, worry ebbing its way into his voice as he questioned his best friend, betrayal also beginning to set in,  
“No, I’m not doing that. That’s not me. I can’t move. I’m locked up. I’m locked up!” The drones took aim too,  
“Get out of here. Go! This whole system’s been compromised.” Rhodey yelled desperately, he didn’t want to hurt them,  
“Let’s take it outside” Tony muttered as he and Erin took off in flight.

The drones all began firing causing the audience to run for the doors, Erin glanced over her shoulder just in time to see Rhodey taking off after them, but her mind was on Peter. Her little boy was somewhere down in the chaos and all she could do was hope someone got him safe.  
“JARVIS, break in, I need to own him.” Tony demanded of his AI, he needed his brother back.  
“Erin, I’ve got target lock,”  
“On what?”  
“On you!” Rhodey yelled as the suit opened fire. Erin ducked away dropping down enough for Rhodey to lose the lock only to have him refocus on Tony instead.

Back inside the Expo, Hammer ran towards the technicians,  
“What’s going on? What’s happening?” He yelled as he reached the computers,  
“The software’s been overridden.” One of the technicians began, bringing up the code,  
“ What? What do you mean it’s been overridden? What does that mean?”   
“I think he slaved the drones.” The technician confessed as he looked at the unreadable code on the screen,  
“That’s impossible. Call the guards.”  
“All the phones are down sir.”  
“Well, then call their… Call their cells.” Hammer knew that he was getting desperate, but this was going to make his company look awful, it potentially wouldn’t recover from the negative image.  
“Their cell phones are not working either sir.”  
“He’s locked us out of the mainframe.” The technician added.

At that moment, Pepper and Natasha made their way towards them, May and Peter having been taken by a security guard to get them safe.  
“Who’s locked you out of the mainframe?” Pepper demanded as she and Natasha approached,  
“Please, please, go away. Go away. I’ve got this handled.” Hammer sneered, trying to push the two women away from seeing what was on the computer screen.  
“Have you now?” Pepper scoffed condescendingly, the sound of weapons fire was a background to her voice,  
“Yes, I do. In fact, if your guys hadn’t showed up, this wouldn’t be happening. So, please, now go away. Thank you” He turned to the technician, “listen, we got to get these bitches out of here. What?” In one movement, Natasha grabbed Hammer and slammed him down onto the desk, pinning his neck under her arm,  
“You tell me who’s behind this. Who’s behind this?” She pressed harder on his neck when he hesitated to answer,  
“Ivan. Ivan Vanko.” Hammer answered eventually,  
“Where is he?”  
“At my facility.” Natasha was walking away in an instant.

Outside, Peter was running with May, the crowd kept ramming them until Peter’s hand slipped from May’s and he was dragged away from her, he couldn’t see or hear her in all of the chaos, leaving him stood on his own as the crowd kept jostling him. He held his plastic helmet tight over his head, not wanting to drop it as he began to cry, he was alone in the crowd with no idea where to go.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A battle between unwilling friends becomes something so much more when children are involved.

Dodging bullets, Erin and Tony kept giving each other and Rhodey updates on their conditions every few minutes. The Air Force Drones were still tailing Erin and Tony while Rhodey was changing between which one he was locked on to. It seemed that whoever was closest was who Rhodey was tailing,  
“How’re we doing, JARIVS?” Tony asked desperately,  
“Remote reboot unsuccessful.” JARVIS responded as Tony dodged some more columns only for Rhodey to begin following Erin.

On the ground, Natasha made her way over to Happy,  
“No one’s answering their phones. What’s going on?” Natasha just continued her walk over to him,  
“Get in the car. Take me to Hammer Industries.” She demanded,  
“I’m not taking you anywhere.” Natasha just rolled her eyes; she didn’t have time to deal with this if they were going to save lives.  
“Fine. You want me to drive?” She snapped, apparently it was enough to get Happy defensive.  
“No, I’m driving. Get in the car.” As soon as they were in the car, Happy sped away from the Expo.

The drones continued their shooting and all Peter could hear was people screaming and weapons fire. He watched in horror as a drone landed in front of him. He held up his hand as Tony landed slightly behind him and shot the drone with a repulsor blast,  
“Nice work kid… Pete?”  
“Tony!” Tony launched a digital beacon, letting Richie know where the nine-year-old was. As soon as he saw Richie come around the corner, Tony lifted off again, trusting that his… that the kid was safe.

Back in the air, Rhodey was still shooting at Erin when he noticed the groups targeting Tony,  
“You got multiples coming in on you.”  
“Let’s get this away from the Expo.” Tony muttered, leading his friends and some of the drones away from the main bulk of people.  
“Erin, Pete’s with Rich, just saw him, he’s scared, not injured.” Erin closed her eyes before nodding her head to Tony over the joint HUD.

Natasha and Happy sped up the road towards Hammer Industries,  
“When we arrive, I need you to watch the perimeter.” She began changing in the back seat, Happy was trying to discreetly glance over,  
“I’m gonna enter the facility and take down the target. Watch the road.” Natasha commented nonchalantly when the car drifted into oncoming traffic and nearly crashed thanks to Happy watching her.  
“I got it. I got it.” Happy muttered, turning his focus back to the road.

Tony, Erin, and Rhodey flew through a multi-story parking lot, setting off the car alarms as the drones followed them  
“Listen, listen. A pack just peeled off. They’re headed back to the Expo.”   
“Got it.” Tony muttered, turning sharply to cut off the drones,  
“I’m closing in on you. Coordinates coming in hot Tony. Watch it.” They were being shot at again as they tried to outmaneuver the bullets and missiles being thrown at them. Erin took in a breath as she shot down another drone.

Erin grinned into the camera as she had an idea,   
“Hey, Tones, remember that film, Pearl Harbor?”  
“Let’s play chicken.” Tony finished as the pair darted opposite directions, a pack of drones following them. After flying away from each other, the pair turned and began flying directly towards each other,  
“We’re going right!” Erin yelled, neither changed course, though, both still heading directly for each other. There was barely an inch between them when they finally darted right, both going away from each other again. Several of the drones crashed into each other and exploded,   
“Rhodey?! You good?”  
“What the fuck was that?!” Rhodey exclaimed as he continued shooting at them, the trio laughed before returning to seriousness.

Arriving at Hammer Industries, Natasha and Happy began making their way to the door,  
“Stay in the car.” Natasha ordered,  
“I’m not staying in the car.” She couldn’t stop herself rolling her eyes, suddenly missing doing missions with Clint,  
“I said, stay in the car.” She growled again, heading up the front steps, Happy noticed the outfit Natasha was wearing – her S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform,  
“What are you wearing? Look, I’m not letting you go in there alone.”   
“You want to help? Keep the car running.” Natasha snapped, not believing that she was having to argue this with Happy right now. She growled again as Happy opened the door that she’d unlocked and ran inside.

A Hammer security guard approached them as soon as they were inside, snapping about how they couldn’t be in there. Happy punched him as Natasha darted past, she left the first guard with Happy while she worked on taking down the others, using both brute force and some S.H.I.E.L.D. tech. It didn’t take her long to get most of them down, she darted around another corner only to take down four more guards as she approached the location of Vanko. Natasha took on a couple more guards once security had been alerted, tearing down five at once and walking away unscathed as she sprayed another with pepper spray.

Happy finished fighting the first guy, yelling out that he’d got him down only to see the multiple guards all unconscious at the hands of Natasha.

Tony and Erin continued diving away from the drones, trying to avoid the bullets but not lose the drones. They needed to keep them away from the Expo for as long as possible.  
“Rhodey, you still locked on?”  
“Yeah.”  
“Drop your socks and grab your Crocs. We’re about to get wet on this ride.” Rhodey exclaimed loud protests as Tony and Erin flew tightly next to each other through several fountains and into the globe structure, both turning at the last moment like they’d done only minutes ago in their game of chicken. Once again, most of the drones following them hit the globe and explode on contact.  
“How is that trick still working?!” Rhodey yelled causing the pair to laugh as they stayed tightly together.   
“I’m sorry buddy. Had to thin out the herd. What’s your 20?” Tony asked only for Rhodey to collide with him.

Both men dropped, crashing to the ground inside the biodome, Erin following close behind them,  
  


Back at Hammer Industries, Happy and Natasha made their way to Vanko’s room only to find it empty, two guards were hanging from the ceiling and a computer was set up in the center of the room. Natasha quickly made her way over to it and began typing away, all but ignoring Happy’s presence,  
“What are you doing?” Happy asked,  
“I’m rebooting Rhodey’s suit.” Natasha muttered as she focused on the task at hand.  
  


Rhodey was on top of Tony, who kept pushing the gun to keep it from shooting him, Erin sent a shot at the gun in an attempt to disable it, but it was shielded by the armor. Tony managed to tip Rhodey off of him just as Natasha gained access to the suit, shutting it down,  
“ _Reboot complete_ ,” Natasha’s voice sounded over the joint HUD audio system, a moment later, an image of her appeared on their HUDs,  
“ _You’ve got your best friend back._ ” Natasha told them. Erin let out a breath as she stood up from her crouch,  
“Thank you very much, Agent Romanoff.” Tony stated, catching his breath for a moment,  
“ _Well done on the new chest piece. I’m reading significantly higher output and your vitals look promising. Also, the existing poisoning is decreasing rapidly._ ” Tony and Erin shared a smile at the comment,  
“Yes, for the moment I’m not dying.” Tony muttered dryly,  
“What do you mean you’re not dying? Did you just say you’re dying?”

Erin and Tony shared a glance at the new voice that joined them, an image of Pepper joined the HUD moments later,  
“We’re gonna need bigger screens if anyone else joins.” Erin muttered only to be ignored.  
“Is that you?” Tony asked, addressing Pepper, “no, I’m not. Not anymore.”  
“What’s going on?” Pepper asked weakly, not as high pitched as she had been a minute ago.  
“I was going to tell you. I didn’t want to alarm you.”  
“You were gonna tell me? You really were dying?!” Pepper’s voice was rising in volume again causing Erin to roll her eyes.  
“You didn’t let me.” Tony defended,  
“Why didn’t you tell me that?”

The pair continued arguing as another face joined Pepper,  
“Ma! You’re ok!” Erin’s eyes widened at the sight of Peter,  
“Pete, baby where’s Rich?”   
“There was an explosion. Hurt my arm and Richie was thrown away from me.” Peter muttered, showing his burnt arm to the camera. It didn’t look too bad, but Erin didn’t want to assume anything.  
“Erin, I hate to interrupt right now, but guys, you’ve got incoming.” Natasha stated, effectively silencing everyone,  
“Looks like the fight’s coming to you.” She finished.  
“Pepper, I’m fine. Don’t be mad. I will formally apologize…”  
“I am mad!”  
“…when I’m not fending off a Hammeroid attack!” Tony was getting more and more agitated with Pepper.  
“Look, Petey, stay with Aunt Pepper, I’ll be with you as soon as I can be.” Peter nodded just in time for the call to cut out, leaving the three in the suits with just Natasha.

Tony turned his attention to Rhodey, tapping the man’s helmet as the system rebooted,  
“Rhodey? Snap out of it buddy. I need you. They’re coming. Come on, let’s roll. Get up.” The helmet opened to reveal Rhodey looking more annoyed than anything,  
“Oh, man. You can have your suit back.” Tony and Erin just laughed as they helped Rhodey to his feet,  
“You okay?” Erin asked, checking for any visible head injuries,  
“Yeah, thanks.” Rhodey turned to Tony, “Tony, look, I’m sorry, okay?”  
“Don’t be.”  
“No. I should have trusted you more.”  
“I’m the one who put you in this position. Forget it.”  
“No. It’s your fault. I just wanted to say I’m sorry.” Erin couldn’t stop herself from smiling at that, watching the pair interact.  
“Thank you. That’s all I wanted to hear. Partner.” The pair shared a smile before Erin interrupted them,  
“They’re coming in hot, any second. What’s the play?”  
“Well, we want to take the high ground, okay? So, let’s put the biggest gun up on that ridge.” The trio all began heading for the ridge,  
“Got you. Where do you want to be?” Rhodey stopped and looked at the pair like they were being ridiculous,  
“Where are you going?”  
“What’re you talking about?”  
“I meant me.” Rhodey said, motioning to the ridge,  
“You have a big gun. You are not the big gun.”  
“Besides, it’s Hammer tech, you really wanna trust it?” Erin said with a raised eyebrow causing Tony to scoff,  
“Guys, don’t be jealous.”  
“Of Hammer tech?”  
“Besides, it’s subtle all the bells and whistles.” Tony replied,  
“Yeah. It’s called being a badass.” Rhodey shot back,  
“Fine. All right. You go up to. We’ll draw them in.” Erin nodded at the plan.

Rhodey stopped, turning to look at his two best friends, he was trying to decide whether they honestly believed that staying down here was a good plan. Deciding that they thought it was, Rhodey shook his head,  
“Don’t stay down here! This is the worst place to be.” He told them causing them to share a look,  
“Okay, you got a spot. Where’re ours?” Rhodey just rolled his eyes,  
“It’s the kill box, Tony. Okay This is where you go to die.” At that moment, drones began landing all around them.

The trio dropped their faceplates, standing in a triangle in an attempt to protect each other. They began firing in sync. Rhodey laughed as he listened to Tony and Erin giving a commentary to the whole thing, each time any of them took down a drone, they made sure that the other two knew. Rhodey was quick to join in, mocking the pair and helping them keep an eye on the incoming attacks.  
“Rhodey? Get down!” Erin had ducked too as Tony used the lasers in the suit’s wrists to slice all of the drones in half.

As soon as all of the drones had fallen, Rhodey looked over to his best friend in the HUD, looking slightly put out by the weapon.   
“Wow. I think you should lead with that next time.” Erin just laughed at that as she took count of the weapons she had left,  
“Yeah. Sorry boss. I can only use it one. It’s a one-off.” Tony responded as the canisters dropped out of the armor. The three shared a laugh as they caught their breath now that all of the drones were down.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bombs and confessions. The fight is over, but there's more to fix than just damaged property.

Back inside at the Expo, Pepper held Peter’s hand tightly, she wasn’t going to be responsible for losing the boy again. A few minutes had passed since they spoke to Erin and Tony when the police arrived,  
“That’s your guy here.” Pepper stated, motioning to Hammer,  
“Excuse me?” Hammer snapped, glaring at Pepper as two police officers rounded on him,  
“You’re being placed under arrest.”  
“Are you kidding me?” Hammer continued to snap.  
“Hands behind your back sir.”  
“I’m trying to help here!” Hammer defended before turning his anger to Pepper, “I get it. I see what you’re doing. You’re trying to pin this on me, huh? That’s good. That’s good. You’re starting to think like a CEO, taking out the competition. I like that. You think you’re making a problem for me? I’m gonna make a problem for you. I’m gonna be seeing you again real soon.” He sneered as he was led away.

One of the remaining police officers began talking about clean-up with Pepper as they led her and Peter outside now that the drones were gone. Peter refused to move anywhere without Pepper, still not really noticing the pain in his arm thanks to the adrenaline still coursing through him,  
“When they get here, I think you should station them at the south, east and both west exits.” Pepper told the officers as they made it outside,  
“We shut down the 7 train in and out of Willets Point already.” Pepper nodded, trying to decide what to do,  
“What about the buses?” Peter offered,   
“Have city buses there to ferry people to operating lines.” Pepper said, agreeing with Peter’s suggestion, the officer nodded before turning to head to the car,  
“Are you coming with us?”  
“No, I’m gonna stay until to park is clear. His mom will be here in a few minutes anyway.” The officer didn’t look too sure but eventually relented and got into his car, driving to sort out moving the people.

Erin, Tony, and Rhodey were gathering up, ready to fly back when Natasha’s voice sounded again,  
“ _Head up. You got one more drone incoming. This one looks different. The repulsor signature is significantly higher._ ” The trio watched as Ivan Vanko landed in front of them in a large suit,  
“Good to be back.” He said as the helmet opened,  
“This ain’t gonna be good.” Rhodey muttered as Ivan’s whips turned on, much larger than the ones he’d had in Monaco,   
“I got something special for this guy.” Rhodey said, “I’m gonna bust his bunker with the Ex-Wife.” Tony and Erin shared a look, glad that they were both as confused as each other,  
“With the what?” Tony asked just as Rhodey shot what looked like a small missile. The device hit Vanko only to bounce off of him and fizzle out in the water,  
“Hammer tech?” Tony asked smirking cockily,  
“Yeah.”  
“Told ya. It’s shit.” Rhodey and Tony both chuckled slightly,  
“I got this.” Tony said as he targeted points on Vanko’s armor, the weapons didn’t do a lot of damage.

Instantly, Erin, Rhodey, and Tony were fighting Vanko, trying to get his armor to break apart. Vanko quickly caught Tony and Erin in the whips. Rhodey was trying to shoot him down and dislodge his friends.  
“Rhodes. I got an idea.” Tony began, “Erin, on three, use your repulsor. Rhodey, you want to be a hero?” Tony held his hand up towards Rhodey while Erin prepped her right-side repulsor,  
“What?”  
“I could really use a sidekick. Put your hand up.” Tony explained,  
“This is your idea?” Rhodey asked, not wanting to believe that Tony would come out with this,  
“Yep.”  
“I’m ready. I’m ready. Go, go, go!” The three did exactly as agreed; Erin’s laser cut into Vanko’s armor enough to injure him, Tony and Rhodey were able to force the four of them back, but they sent a surge of energy through the whips, electrocuting Vanko as they did so.  
“You lose.” Vanko wheezed as he died.

As he did so, the reactor on his chest began flashing red, as do those of the drones around them.  
“All these drones are rigged to blow. We gotta get out of here.”   
“Peter!” Erin yelled at the same time that Tony muttered Pepper’s name. The pair took off at full speed, heading back to the main entrance of the Expo.

In sync, Erin scooped up Peter and Tony lifted Pepper, both pushed off the ground and took off into the sky just as the drones exploded. Erin laughed when she saw that Peter still had on his Iron Man helmet, Tony looked over and began chuckling too as Peter yelled excitedly.

Landing on a nearby rooftop, Tony and Erin ripped off their helmets when the circuitry began to seize up, causing the helmets to move almost painfully. As soon as they had taken off the helmets, Erin knelt down in front of Peter, looking over his arm to see just how bad the burns were. Thankfully, they looked to be only surface wounds.

Erin looked over when she realized that Tony and Pepper were arguing,  
“Oh my God. I can’t take this anymore.” Pepper exclaimed, grabbing the sides of her head,  
“You can’t?” Tony snapped back, looking at her in disbelief,  
“I can’t take this.”  
“Look at me!” Tony exclaimed again,  
“My body, literally, cannot handle the stress. I never know if you’re gonna kill yourself or wreak the whole company.” Tony went silent, his mind spinning at Pepper’s words – the company.

Tony stepped away from her, ignoring any of her other comments as he headed over to Erin and Peter, pulling Peter into his arms, Tony let out a breath of relief that the boy wasn’t too badly hurt.  
“Hey, Little Man.”  
“I flew! Did ya see! I flew Dad!” Tony’s breath caught in his throat as he heard Peter’s words ‘Dad’, his mind was playing the word on repeat,  
“I saw,” Tony said with an encouraging grin as he hugged the boy tighter in his arms.  
“It was like you and Ma. I flew! And Uncle Rhodey can fly now too!”  
“He sure can.” Erin said quietly as Tony stood up with the boy still in his arms.

Looking at the woman in front of him, Tony tried to get his words in order, but Erin beat him to it,  
“Rhodey didn’t steal a suit, did he?”  
“No.” Tony muttered, “how’d…”  
“It was designed for him. His measurements, an external reactor… it made sense.” Tony searched Erin’s face, trying to figure out her emotions,  
“I didn’t want you to do this alone, but that doesn’t matter now.” Tony whispered, placing Peter carefully on his feet,  
“Tony… I never want to do this if it isn’t with you.” Erin confessed as tears stung her eyes,  
“Erin,”  
“I can’t… I won’t,” Erin was cut off by Tony’s lips crashing against hers. It only took a moment for Erin to respond, deepening the kiss.

After a long moment, the pair broke apart, neither paying attention to their audience as they watched each other,  
“Was that weird?” Tony asked, not wanting Erin to say yes.  
“Not how I imagined our first kiss, but not weird.” Erin muttered with a smile  
“How about the second kiss?” The pair kissed again,  
“I think it was weird.” Rhodey said from the other side of the roof where Peter was making gagging noises while grinning. The pair broke apart in surprise and turned to their best friend,  
“Honestly, I’ve known you both for over twenty years, how the hell have you never kissed?! I swear the tension has been unbearable to everyone except you two.”  
“He’d just… I had…” Rhodey shared a look with Peter as they listened to Erin stumble over an explanation,  
“You don’t have to explain. I heard the whole thing.”   
“You should get lost.” Tony said, pointing behind Rhodey,  
“I was here first. Get a roof.” Rhodey’s words set the group off laughing with the exception of Pepper, she looked hurt at the fact that Tony and Erin had kissed.  
“I thought you were out of one-liners.” Tony commented,  
“That’s the last one.”   
“You kicked ass back there, by the way.” Tony told Rhodey, a smile on his face,  
“Thank you. You too, both of you. Listen, my car got taken out in the explosion, so I’m gonna have to hang on to your suit for a minute, okay?”  
“Not okay. Not okay with that.” Tony said, feverishly shaking his head,  
“It wasn’t a question.” Rhodey responded as he took off.

Erin and Tony watched their friend disappear with a smile before returning to serious,  
“We need to call May, let her know Pete’s ok, then I need to call my people, make sure they all got out.” Tony nodded, making his way over to Pepper while Erin headed for Peter,  
“I’ll meet you at the country house, about 5 minutes flight from here.” Tony called over, Erin nodded as she lifted Peter and grabbed her helmet. She hesitantly attached it, but it didn’t seize, so she took it as a good sign. Taking off in flight, Erin clutched Peter tightly to her chest, leaving Tony and Pepper alone on the roof.

Tony waited until Erin had taken off before turning to Pepper,  
“I’m sorry,” he stated softly, “for not telling you I was dying, in my defense, you wouldn’t let me. But also, I’m sorry for making your life hell for the past two weeks.” Pepper just nodded,  
“I need to sort out clean-up, you’ve got… other things to do.” Pepper stated, backing away and finding stairs off the roof, leaving Tony alone, staring after her in confusion.

Deciding to just follow Erin to the country house, Tony took off in flight. He blocked away what Pepper had said, not wanting to read too much into it before he had gotten everything else figured out. Everything with Erin and Peter.

Arriving at the country house, Tony stepped onto a plate that instantly began dismantling the armor, he didn’t wait before heading to the large lab off from the living room. Inside the room, Tony saw Peter sat on the table as Erin patched up his arm, as soon as Peter saw Tony, he was beyond talkative, speaking a mile a minute while Erin stepped away.   
“I need to make some calls.” She said before leaving the room.

Heading into the living room, Erin grabbed the phone from the side and dialed May’s cell,  
“Erin?! Tony?! Peter?!”  
“It’s Erin, Pete’s fine, he’s currently being overexcited with Tony.” May let out a relieved laugh, her fear settling,  
“Is he hurt?”  
“Slight burn, but nothing that won’t heal.” Erin said softly, reassuring May that Peter would be fine in a week or so. After another couple of minutes, Erin ended the call.

She didn’t get to sit in silence for too long because she was instantly calling Jessica,  
“Hey, Doc. Team’s fine. We’re all back at base. Richie’s got a couple of burns, nothing too bad, he’ll be out for a couple of weeks, but he’ll get there.” Erin nodded a smile on her lips at the fact that Jessica could predict her question. She ended the call a few moments later only for the phone to ring,  
“Erin?!”  
“Hey, Nick,” Erin muttered,  
“You’re alive then. What about Peter?”  
“Pete’s fine. So are Rhodey and Tony. And Pepper.”   
“Good to hear.” Erin ended the call just as quickly as it started.

Leaning back on the couch, Erin closed her eyes and disconnected her prosthetic in the silence only for IRIS to disturb it,  
“Doc, you’ve got several texts come through, would you like me to display them?”  
“Go ahead.”  
‘From: Jess-Jess (20:53)  
We’re all good, don’t panic.’  
‘From: Jess-Jess (21:01)  
Ok, panic for Richie, he’s burnt’  
‘From: Jess-Jess (21:10)  
Don’t panic again, they’re but a flesh wound.’ Erin couldn’t stop herself from smiling.  
  


‘From: Copernicus  
Please for fuck sake, tell me you’re ok. Tell me that Pete and Tony are fine too! And you’re buddy, Rhodes’  
‘To: Copernicus  
All fine. So is your little spider.’  
‘From: Copernicus  
Thank fuck.’ Erin smirked at that, even though she’d snapped at him and told him that they weren’t going to speak, Clint didn’t give up.  
  


‘From: Nick  
Are you ok?  
Answer, Erin  
Erin!  
Fine I’ll just fucking call!’ She laughed at Nick’s distressed texting, all the texts were sent within a minute of each other.  
  


‘From: Happy Hopeful  
Pepper says you guys are ok, that’s good to hear. Let me know if you need anything now Richie’s down.’  
‘To: Happy Hopeful  
Will do. And yes, we’re all fine.’

Closing the texts, Erin turned just in time to see Tony and Peter enter the room,   
“It’s bedtime, Pete.” Erin said, holding her hand out to the boy, surprisingly, Peter didn’t fuss. It didn’t take long for Erin to get her son off to bed that night, he was exhausted from the evening events.

Heading back into the living room, Erin saw Tony opening a bottle whiskey, pouring some into two glasses and heading over to the couch where Erin had sat down,  
“Are we gonna talk about the roof?” Erin asked softly as she took a drink,  
“Where do we go?”  
“How about to dinner?” Tony just grinned at the idea, pulling Erin closer and kissing her again.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Avengers Initiative, friendships are repaired and new ones form, truths come out, and time goes on...

Erin and Tony were seated in a warehouse, waiting for Nick Fury to arrive. The pair kept glancing at the files on the table in front of them, after several minutes, Tony spun one of them around to face him, he raised an eyebrow as he read the cover : AVENGERS INITIATIVE PREMLIMIARY REPORT.

The pair shrugged as they went to open it, only to be stopped when Nick placed his hand on top,  
“I don’t think I want you looking at that. I’m not sure it pertains to you anymore.” He held a report out to Tony,  
“Now this on the other hand, is Agent Romanoff’s assessment of you. Read it.” Erin sent a glare to her uncle,  
“Be warned, any incorrect information, I will correct it.” Nick nodded, already knowing that she would do that,  
“’Personality overview. Mr. Stark displays a desire to keep people at arms distance.’ Agree to disagree. ‘Cares more about protecting those he loves than himself.’” Erin watched Tony cautiously, it seemed that Natasha was honest in her report,  
“’Highly loyal to the few people he trusts. Doesn’t trust new people.’” Tony raised an eyebrow at the wording. Ignoring it, Tony kept scanning the page until he came to what he was looking for.  
“Okay, here it is. ‘Recruitment assessment for Avenger Initiative. Iron Man? Yes.’ I gotta think about it.” Erin smirked at Tony’s comment,  
“Read on.”  
“’Tony Stark not… Not recommended without the support of Doctor Erin Walker’?” Tony looked over to Erin, “ok that makes sense.” Erin smiled as she watched her godfather, she didn’t let her eyes leave Nick while Tony kept his eyes on the file.

Nick walked around to stand between the pair,  
“Erin, you’ve disowned everything to do with S.H.I.E.L.D., we believe that, at this time, it would be… inappropriate to make you members of the Initiative without the support of each other. Currently, you have a young boy who relies heavily on you both. This leads us to believe that at this juncture, we’d only like to use you as consultants unless the time came for a more… dire need.” Tony stood, offering his hand to Nick. The pair shook and Tony smirked,  
“You couldn’t afford me.” He said before going to leave, knowing that Erin wanted to speak to her godfather.  
“Then again, I will waive my customary retainer in exchange for a small favor.” Tony said, turning around to face Nick, “Rhodey, Erin, and I are being honored in Washington and we need a presenter.” Tony said with a devious grin.  
“I’ll see what I can do.” Nick said, easily picking up on what Tony was implying. Tony left the room after that, heading to wait for Erin outside.

Turning his attention to Erin, Nick let out a breath before walking back over to her, passing her a file that Natasha had written about the woman,  
“She called you; honest, compassionate, respectful, resilient, and resourceful. She also said that you lose trust quickly, you don’t forgive easily, you put your family before anything, including allies.” Erin smiled tightly at the words,  
“I’m not sure why she said that you’ll be there if anyone was ever in danger, though I would correct that to say that anyone by the name of Clint Barton has your protection.” Nick watched Erin read over the file before he continued to speak about a more important matter.  
“I didn’t tell them about Firefly, I just told them the word.” Erin nodded,  
“I know. I think I knew all along, I was just scared.” Nick took Erin’s hand,  
“I would never betray you or your father like that.”  
“Dad was a good man. What do you say? When they ask about Firefly, I mean.”  
“Just that it was an old mission. It’s not like they can find out more, the only place it’s stored is in here.” Nick tapped the side of Erin’s head,  
“You don’t tell them of the team?”  
“God no. They were in the deepest cover, most of S.H.I.E.L.D. didn’t know they existed, it’s what made the pay so bad.”  
“Yep. I know that one. You and Peg kept us afloat though.” Erin muttered, picking some dirt from under her fingernail. Nick just chuckled at Erin’s comment, he knew that her mind was elsewhere as she tried to figure everything out in her head,  
“Go and spend some time figuring everything out. Call me with your decision around S.H.I.E.L.D.” Erin nodded and headed out of the room.

Three days later, Tony, Erin, Rhodey, and Peter were in Washington, the three adults on the platform while Peter sat with the small crowd,  
“It is my honor to be here today to present these distinguished awards to Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes, Doctor Erin Walker, and Mr. Tony Stark, who are, of course, national treasures.” The three shared a look as Senator Stern said the words through gritted teeth. The man headed over to Rhodey to pin the medal to his uniform,  
“Thank you, Lieutenant Colonel, for such an exceptionally distinguished performance. You deserve this.”  
“Thank you, sir.”  
“Thank you, Doctor Walker, for such an exceptionally distinguished performance. You deserve this.” Erin smiled sweetly as the man pinned the medal to her,  
“Thank you, Senator.” The man glared at Tony as he headed over to him,  
“Mr. Stark. Thank you for such an… exceptionally distinguished performance. You deserve this.” Tony winced in slight pain as the Senator pricked him with the pin,  
“Oh, sorry. Funny how annoying a little prick can be, isn’t it?” He moved to stand between Rhodey and Erin,  
“Let’s get a photo.” Erin and Tony wrapped an arm around each-other’s waists before holding their other hands up in peace signs, Rhodey grinned at his two best friends.

Arriving back at the country house, Erin watched the other three head inside while her phone rang,  
“Copernicus?”  
“How does tomorrow work for you?”  
“I’ve got all day free. Tony’s not around so Peter’ll be with me, though, so…”  
“Great, I’ll pick you both up from the New York HQ of Walker Industries at 11.” The call ended with Erin staring at the phone. Heading inside, Erin’s face was still full of confusion as she looked over to her family,  
“I’m out tomorrow apparently, taking Peter with me.” The other three looked up to her curiously, “Copernicus.”

Settling into her office, Erin and Peter sat waiting for Clint to arrive. Peter was more than excited to see Clint again after nearly three months; every time Clint had visited, Peter had either been with May, at school, or in Malibu while Erin was working in New York. Erin watched the boy with a smile, she was trying to decide whether Clint would really hurt her, but she couldn’t bring herself to hate the man that her son was describing. In her heart, Erin knew that Clint was her friend, in her head… She didn’t get much longer to contemplate thanks to Amelia (one of the inters) bringing Clint to the office.  
“Ready?” Clint asked, Peter ran over to the man and launched into his arms.

Clint led the pair outside to his car, he noticed Erin slowing down slightly,  
“Everything ok?”  
“I don’t know about this, Clint… I mean, it wasn’t even a week ago when I told you that I wanted nothing to do with this… with you.”  
“So we’ll fix things.” Clint stated, Erin noticed that there was some uncertainty in Clint’s eyes. She couldn’t stop herself smiling at the fact that Clint – a master assassin and spy – was showing emotion to her without much hesitation.  
“My bodyguard’s still out of commission…” Erin confessed, watching as Clint messed with Peter for a moment.  
“I’m not gonna kill you and dump your body. It’s just easier to show, rather than tell.” Peter eagerly climbed into the back, a booster seat already in the back. Erin was still reluctant, but climbed into the passenger seat, nonetheless.

They drove for about two hours with Clint and Peter talking happily, catching up on everything that had happened in the past three months. Erin couldn’t bring herself to speak as she watched Clint interact with Peter, no one except Tony and Rhodey had ever been so engaging to the boy. Eventually, they headed up a country lane to a farmhouse, far away from any other houses. Erin glanced over to Clint, not too sure what to make of what was going on.

Peter practically leapt out of the car as soon as it came to a stop in front of the house, Erin was a bit more hesitant. She eyed the building cautiously before looking over to Clint who had taken Peter’s hand to lead him up onto the porch. Following them slowly, Erin walked behind them as Clint led the pair inside,  
“Honey, we’re back.” He called, Erin pulled Peter into her arms as the boy let go of Clint’s hand, he knew that his Ma would protect him if she needed to and he also knew the basics of Clint’s job.

Erin lifted Peter onto her hip just as a young woman, not much older than Natasha, came around the corner,  
“You must be Erin and Peter,” The woman said, Erin remained tense, her jaw locked as she looked to Clint for an explanation,  
“Erin, Peter, meet my wife, Laura.”  
“Hi.” Erin said tensely while Peter wiggled free from her hold just as the sound of footsteps thundered down the stairs. As soon as the footsteps sounded, Peter was hiding behind his Ma, he cuddled closer to her as the footsteps grew closer.

Clint caught the two young children easily, but the sight of them did nothing to settle Erin,  
“Erin, Peter, meet Cooper,” a young boy who looked to be barely younger than Peter waved, “and Lila,” the little girl cuddled into Clint’s arms. At that moment, Peter let out a yell,  
“Nat!” Natasha caught the boy in a hug while Erin looked even tenser, she looked ready to fight Natasha if the woman moved even slightly too fast. Laura watched the interaction,  
“Clint, why don’t you go and explain things to Erin.” Clint nodded, taking his friend out onto the porch.

Closing the door, Clint watched Erin look out over the railings of the porch, her eyes misty,  
“Erin, I know you still probably hate me, but you had to know why I told Nat. She my kids’ aunt.” Erin looked down, but still didn’t speak.  
“You know about my family, Clint.” Clint nodded solemnly, “we lived like this, me and my dad. No one knew I existed until I went to school, even then it was with a fake name. Took my last name back when he died. Seeing you with your family, it reminded me of why I became a doctor – a way to end a fight.”  
“Same reason I stay at S.H.E.I.L.D., it keeps them safe.” Erin turned to look at Clint, her eyes searching his face,  
“How much younger than me are you?”  
“Three years, why?” Erin shook her head, remaining silent, not wanting to tell Clint that she’d never had a little brother before.

After several minutes, the pair headed back inside, watching as Peter interacted with the two other kids. It didn’t take long for Erin and Laura to be talking like old friends.  
“You two will have to come on one of our monthly girls’ outing.” Erin said to Laura and Nat, both laughed,  
“I’m serious. Me, Jessie, Pep, May. You two could join, chat shit for a couple of hours, drink, the usual stuff.” They both agreed after a few minutes.

By 5pm, IRIS spoke up,  
“Doc, hate to interrupt, but you should begin heading home now in order to make tonight’s reservations.”  
“Thanks, IRIS.” Erin turned to Peter, calling the boy over. Clint led the pair back to the car before driving them back to the HQ.

After that interaction, Erin went to see Laura and Clint every other weekend. By the end of the third month, Erin invited Laura, Clint, and their family over for dinner,  
“C’mon Copernicus. They know how to keep a secret and protect each other.”  
“Erin… I dunno.”  
“Just try. Next Saturday. I’ll have Tony, Rhodey, Pepper, and Peter here. You bring Nat, Laura, and your kids.” Clint just sighed on the other end of the line.  
“I’ll try.” Erin just grinned, it was time to introduce her family to Clint.

When Saturday came around, Erin was waiting for Clint’s arrival, he had texted her nearly three hours ago to say that they were leaving, meaning that they would arrive at any time. Eventually, the doorbell rang, Erin was off the couch and at the door faster than she would later admit. Pulling Clint into a hug, she led the Barton family and Natasha into the country house.

Leading them into the living room, Erin grinned at her family, they were all staring at the newcomers in confusion,  
“Guys, meet Copernicus and his family.” Erin said as she led them over to the couch,  
“Copernicus, guys, meet Rhodey,” Rhodey gave them a nod, “Pepper,” Pepper smiled at Laura and Natasha, having met them on their outings last month,  
“And this is Tony.” Erin said as Tony moved to stand next to her,  
“It’s nice to finally put a face to a nickname.” Tony said with a smirk, holding his hand out to Clint,  
“Clint Barton.” He said, taking Tony’s hand. Laura followed suit, introducing herself before the kids introduced themselves.

The two kids were quickly led down to the workshop by Peter, leaving just the adults stood awkwardly around the living room. Natasha looked over to Tony,  
“Look, I’m sorry. For hurting you, for betraying you.” Tony watched her, trying to decide whether he could trust the assassin/spy,  
“I’m sure that we can learn to be friends.” Tony muttered. It was only minutes later that Mama Rhodey arrived at the house, commenting about how good it was to see her kids again.

With that, a fantastic friendship dawned between the two families. Clint, Tony, and Rhodey became three good friends, quickly introducing Clint to Happy and Richie before the group determined that their job was to mock each other and keep an eye on their families when one of them was away (mostly keep an eye on Laura and the kids when Clint was gone. Similarly, Laura and Natasha were added into the fold of friendship with Erin, Pepper, Jessica, and May. The kids all became like cousins, Peter and Cooper became best friends when they realized that Peter was only 3 weeks older than Cooper. After the first dinner, the group attempted to have a meal together at least once a month and on special occasions.

At the end of month eight, Erin and Tony were photographed kissing at a charity event for ex-veterans, the picture went viral when people realized that the relationship was serious. Clint, Happy, and Rhodey took to mocking Tony as often as possible whenever he was asked about his relationship with Erin. Pepper and Jessica made certain to keep Laura and Natasha up to date on everything that was going on that reporters didn’t hear about, no matter how small. Erin and Tony were more than happy in their little family, they had become an aunt and uncle to Cooper and Lila, Tony had become Dad to Peter. Clint became an uncle to Peter while Laura and Natasha were his newest Aunts (but no one beat out Aunt May). Erin made sure to keep in contact with Nick and, after apologizing, Coulson who informed her that the man that she had treated all those months ago was Thor of Asguard, he’d spoken highly of ‘the Lady of Metal’ when he was in a fight. Erin smirked at the idea of having a god-like being as a contact.

All in all, things were good for the weird family. Though, they would be pushing their luck to think that it could stay good forever.


End file.
